Over the past few days, Riley Gaines (a former swimmer) and Simone Biles (the famous medal-winning (11 total in the Olympics) gymnast) have been feuding over the issue of trans women in women’s sports. Yesterday, to her credit, Biles apologized for making their disagreement personal. While she has not quite said so directly, Biles has expressed support for transgender athletes, including yesterday, when she said she wants “rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition.” (More on fairness later.) Gaines, on the other hand, has become outspoken against such “inclusion” since tying with Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas is biologically male but identifies as a woman, which allowed him to compete as a woman in that event. He went on to win the 500-yard freestyle in the same championships.
Biles is now 28 years old and has hinted at retiring soon; for a gymnast, she is past her prime. I have also noticed some other well-known female athletes who have come out in support of trans women in women’s sports. Megan Rapinoe, now-retired women’s soccer star, expressed support for trans youth, particularly trans girls in girl’s sports, in schools in 2020 via a court filing; she has become even more vocal and has broadened her support to include adult trans women in women’s sports since retiring in 2023, shortly after the women’s World Cup.
Another well-known athlete, WNBA star Candace Parker, expressed public support for the same cause in 2020 via the same court filing; like Rapinoe, she has broadened her support to include trans women in women’s sports, especially since her retirement, which happened in 2024.
A third well-known athlete, tennis star Billie Jean King (now 81), was another signatory to the same court filing that Rapinoe and Parker signed in 2020.
The pattern seems obvious: well-known women athletes who have already made their mark professionally and who are already retired, or near retirement, are expressing their public support for trans women in women’s sports. While there have been other less-famous women athletes who have expressed their support as well, I doubt that there are many (if any) young women athletes who are in favor of it; it’s understandable, of course, that they would be reluctant to express their opposition to it, however, for fear of being ostracized.
On the other hand, there have also been well-known women athletes who have expressed their opposition to trans women in women’s sports, some more directly than others. Here’s an indirect example: Now-retired tennis great Serena Williams said in an interview with David Letterman in 2013, “If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0. The men are a lot faster, and they serve harder. They hit harder. It’s just a different game.” Murray had recently challenged her to an exhibition match. (Williams retired in 2022.)
Tennis great Martina Navratilova, now 68, has been very vocal in her opposition to trans women in women’s sports. In February of this year, she wrote in a post on X, “I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women’s sports being for females only.” Five days ago, also in a post on X, she wrote, “Riley [Gaines] is MAGA and I couldn’t disagree with her more on politics but on keeping sports safe and fair for girls and women I agree with her. As most people, republicans democrats and everything in between do also.”
In her second post, Navratilova mentions the two primary issues regarding trans women in women’s sports: safety and fairness. When Payton McNabb was 17, she suffered severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms after being hit in the face by a volleyball during a 2023 match; the ball was spiked by a trans girl. Another aspect of safety revolves around the issue of women (and girls) who have been forced to share the same locker room with trans women; the reason we know that Lia Thomas is biologically male is because Riley Gaines and other women saw him naked; the women, of course, felt unsafe.
The other issue Navratilova mentioned is fairness. I came across a rather startling UN Report in an article by Emily Crane from Oct. 23, 2024; the report was titled “Violence against women and girls in sports,” and it said that, “By 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.” It added, “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males.” There have also been trans women who have “broken records” while competing in women’s sports. On January 26, 2024, track-and-field athlete Sadie Schreiner, a trans woman, broke two records in the Atlantic Region Championship. Hopefully, these “records” and others like them will one day be expunged from the record books.
A recent (April 30 of this year) poll by NBC news found that 75% of Americans agree with Martina Navratilova: trans women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Those who publicly express that trans women should be allowed to participate in women’s sports are the favored ones in our ultra-tolerant society, while those who express their opposition to such “inclusion” tend to be attacked; just ask Riley Gaines. My solution to this issue is to have two additional, separate categories in sports: trans women and trans men. In other words, let trans women compete, but only against other trans women, and the same for trans men. I doubt that this would ever be implemented because it would be seen as “exclusionary.”
As I’ve written before elsewhere, here’s what the Bible tells us about men and women: Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God has made each of us as either a male or a female, and He never, ever makes a mistake.
I fear for those who identify as the opposite gender. If that is you, I pray that you will come to understand who God is and that if you trust Him, He will save you and give you contentment as the person, including your sex at birth, that He made you to be.
To the Remnant 
Thanks for the interesting post, Keith. Feminist female athletes are in a Catch 22. They certainly know “transgender women” have a huge biological advantage, but they have to go along with the agenda.
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Thanks, Tom; that’s a good way of putting it. Such intellectual dishonesty on their part, though, is disgusting, and I think would be regarded as a betrayal by the young female athletes who have the bulk of their careers ahead of them.
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Keith, one thing about Martina Navratilova, according to Wikipedia she identifies herself as homosexual and is not a Christian so the opposition to transwomen in women’s sports is not confined to conservative Christians. I also know that British author J.K. Rowling (not an evangelical or a conservative Catholic) is opposed to transwomen competing against biological women.
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You’re right, Tony, about opposition to trans women in women’s sports not being confined to Christians–and that is something I’m very grateful for! Navratilova is not a Christian; as you say, she is a lesbian. Interestingly, Rapinoe, Parker, and King are also lesbians. Anyway, and again thankfully, not all lesbians are supportive of trans women in women’s sports.
Regarding J.K. Rowling: I don’t know if she’s a Christian or not. I’ve read some things that indicate she is. She says, for example, “To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious…But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
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