Chelsea Mitchell, one of the fastest female athletes to ever compete in Connecticut high school sports, is suing her home state for allowing males to compete in female sports.
Mitchell, 20, lost 20 races in her career because the state of Connecticut sees no issue with allowing males to compete against females. Well, Mitchell has a big problem with that, and she is prepared to fight it out in court.
“At the end of the day, this is just about fairness,” Mitchell told the New York Post. “This is about biology.”
But that common sense approach to the issue of trans inclusion in sports is not shared by the targets of her suit – the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference – who believe an athlete should be able to compete according to their gender identity.
Mitchell is not alone in this fight. Her suit is joined by fellow Connecticut female track athletes Selina Soule, 20, Ashley Nicoletti, 19, and Alanna Smith, 19. If successful, the four female athletes will force Connecticut to change their policy by requiring athletes to compete according to their biological sex, not gender identity.
(L-R) Chelsea Mitchell, Selina Soule, and Alanna Smith, three former Connecticut high school track athletes, listen during an “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza on June 23, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“I wanted to give voice to my story and help other girls out there so that they wouldn’t have to experience this,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was a fast riser in her early days competing in track. But her hopes of capturing a state championship hit an unexpected and almost impossible-to-imagine roadblock when she was forced to compete against a male runner who ultimately derailed her otherwise promising chances of winning the statewide tournament.
“It was just obvious to everyone there that they had a huge advantage. Everyone could see it,” Mitchell said.
The problem of facing other athletes with a built-in biological advantage didn’t go away, in fact, it got worse.
The following year there were two transgender runners active in Connecticut girls’ track, and over the remainder of Mitchell’s high school career, these biological male athletes dominated the field.
Just two athletes took so many opportunities away from biological females,” Mitchell told the New York Post. “Even though there were only two of them, they took 15 state championships away from other girls — and there were 85 girls that were directly impacted from them being in the races.”
Mitchell’s fight for fairness for female athletes has been long and arduous. Her first legal move against the state came in her junior year when she challenged Connecticut’s policies with an anonymous Title IX complaint. However, eventually, Mitchell realized any serious effort with a chance of success needed her name behind it.
“It was like, if I don’t speak up for myself, who else is going to speak up for me? As much as I wanted the coaches and administrators to speak up, at the end of the day, they weren’t,” Mitchell explained.
While Mitchell has put her name behind her lawsuit, she does not divulge the name of the college where she currently competes.
Smith, Soule, Nicoletti, and Mitchell’s lawsuit is set to be heard on June 6 before the U.S. Second Court of Appeals in New York City.
Danbury High School sophomore Alanna Smith speaks during a press conference at the Connecticut State Capitol Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, in downtown Hartford, Conn. (Kassi Jackson/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Mitchell could be facing an uphill battle, however. A three-judge panel of the same court ruled against her in December. Though, Mitchell’s legal team at the Alliance Defending Freedom remains “hopeful” that the full court will rule to protect girls and women’s sports.
“We’re hopeful that the court will declare that this Connecticut policy violates Title IX,” said Mitchell’s lawyer Matt Sharp of Alliance Defending Freedom. “We’re asking for the court to recognize the damage done to Chelsea and the other athletes, and to restore their record and the credit that they rightfully worked hard to earn.”
If successful, the lawsuit will force Connecticut to amend the athlete’s records to reflect what they would have been if the transgender runners had never been in the race, the New York Post reports.