Three-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead has now joined the likes of tennis legend Martina Navratilova, Lara Trump, Charles Barkley, and Enes Kanter Freedom in demanding that the WNBA stop stalling and formally define what a woman is under its official league rules.
Hogshead, who swam for the U.S. in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, has launched a petition in response to a letter by several Republican congressmen, led by Indiana’s Marlin Stutzman, who are also demanding that the league come up with a policy defining what a woman is, according to the Daily Signal.
The WNBA does have a clause in its rules stating that only women are allowed to play. On the other hand, the league has also not formally defined exactly what a woman is. And with so many players and coaches saying that men claiming to be women are welcome in the league, the question is a valid one.
“Women train, sacrifice, compete, and fight unimaginably hard for the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of their sport,” Hogshead says in her petition. “As a three-time Olympic gold medalist, I understand that my athletic career was made possible because women had a dedicated category to compete… and win. The athletes in the WNBA deserve to know that when they step onto the court, they will be competing on a level playing field – without biological males.”
“The NBA Board of Governors approved the WNBA in 1996, paving the way for elite female basketball players to have what previous generations were denied: a professional league and the chance to compete at the highest level,” she added.
“I’ve spent decades fighting for safe and equal opportunities for women in sports, both as an athlete and as a civil rights attorney,” Hogshead continued. “As a three-time Olympic gold medalist, I underwent sex verification myself. It was a simple cheek swab, and I know firsthand why clear eligibility standards matter.”
“I only wish we’d had similarly effective safeguards to catch the systematic doping of East German women swimmers in my era,” she said.
Hogshead says that her call to have the league define a woman “is not complicated,” and adds that the WNBA “exists for women and their fans. Biological female athletes deserve clear rules that ensure fair competition and uphold the opportunities that women’s sports advocates have worked over decades to create and provide.”
The petition has earned more than 21,00 signers to date.
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