Olympians train for it. Education leaders live it.

In elite sports, pressure is an expectation, not an exception. You prepare for it with intention, through conditioning, mental training and countless repetitions. In education leadership, the pressure is constant too: political shifts, community expectations and the unrelenting pace of change. Yet, unlike athletes, most leaders are never trained to manage that pressure as part of their craft. 

That gap has consequences. The found that fewer than half of women education leaders rate their physical or mental health as good, and more than a quarter report poor or very poor health. Fully 93% reported burnout is a major problem and, nearly nine in 10 say they are expected to prioritize work over their own wellbeing. It’s not just women leaders facing these challenges. A recent study by RAND found that fully report high levels of work stress, compared to just 33% of other working adults.

The results are predictable: exhaustion, attrition and a diminished bench of current and future leaders.

Society asks superintendents and system leaders to perform at an elite level when it comes to inspiring, deciding, communicating and advancing progress for students and schools. But those expectations are shouldered without the recovery cycles or coaching structures that make consistent performance possible. Enduring as a leader is not a question of talent. It’s a question of training and sustaining infrastructure.

For a competitive sailor on the water, every decision counts. Each maneuver, each adjustment of the sail and decision made on the course requires clarity and composure. There are no shortcuts, no quick wins and no timeouts from the conditions. Olympic sailing demands resilience, precision and presence. These are the same skills required to lead a school district through uncertainty.

As a two-time Olympian, Lara learned that the hardest work happens long before race day. You learn to trust your preparation, to focus on what’s in your control and to reframe setbacks as data rather than defeat. Leadership is the same. The stakes may be different, but the mental framework is identical: the ability to perform consistently under pressure.

Education leaders, too, face shifting winds and unpredictable currents. They need the tools to help them strengthen their own resilience, manage their energy and refine their decision-making – not in isolation but within a supportive system of peers and coaches.

To perform at the highest levels with consistency and resilience, leaders must tap into their “.” That means building the discipline, structure, and recovery needed to sustain high performance.

This notion crystallized for Julia through a that reframes health as a system of six interconnected domains: strength, cardio, metabolic health, nutrition, mental resilience and emotional well-being.

Getting “fit” as a leader means developing the daily discipline to perform under pressure, manage energy, stay clear-minded and recover quickly. The next evolution of education leadership, then, isn’t about adding more disconnected professional development modules. It’s about creating the space and structure for leaders to train like athletes: with clear routines, feedback and recovery.

For too long, education has treated leadership development as episodic. A conference here, a coaching session there. But sustained performance requires repetition, accountability, and reflection.

That’s why we’ve brought these principles to life through the (SEEN). A new model of leadership development, SEEN brings the same proven principles that drive Olympic training to executive leadership: focused preparation, continuous feedback and a community that holds leaders accountable to growth. It’s not about longer hours or grinding harder; it’s about building the capacity to lead with greater clarity, calm and stamina. 

One of the most powerful lessons from Olympic competition is that pressure itself isn’t the enemy. Indeed, it’s the . When leaders shift from avoiding pressure to embracing it, it can become a catalyst for growth.

That mindset is especially critical now. Education leaders are navigating unprecedented complexity: integrating artificial intelligence, addressing the mental health of students and staff, and rebuilding public trust. These are high-stakes, high-pressure challenges. And like any competition, success depends on preparation for both the challenges we can see and those we know we’ll never be able to anticipate. 

The goal isn’t to make pressure disappear. It’s to teach leaders how to operate within it, to see it as a contextual reality, and not an emergency.

This work is especially vital for women leaders, who often face additional scrutiny and higher expectations in public leadership roles. For them, pressure can feel isolating. But training in community transforms it into strength.

As in Olympic sailing, success isn’t determined by avoiding the wind. It’s about knowing how to read it, adapt to it and use it to move forward. The same is true for education leaders.

Leadership at this level is a discipline. And like any craft, it demands practice.

Because leadership, like sailing, will encounter rough conditions. Success lies in navigating them with focus, courage and a team you can count.

But what if there was a giant, 60-million seat classroom we keep overlooking?

What if there was already a classroom where students are learning how to lead, how to fail and keep trying and how to handle themselves when things don’t go their way?

A place where teamwork wasn’t just a word on a post but rather something kids had to develop and live out in real time?

Youth sports represent that classroom. For decades, youth sports have been considered just a physical outlet that kids participated in to stay healthy and be active. What’s often overlooked is the depth of learning and development already happening within athletic environments.

According to the Aspen Institute’s , an estimated 54% of all kids aged 6-17 participate in some form of youth sports every year. In raw numbers, that’s over in the U.S. engaging in organized athletics every year. Sports are embedded in the lives of American youth.

With over half of our students participating in sports each year, we have the opportunity to treat their involvement as more than just an add-on. Instead, what if educators and parents viewed sports as another environment where real learning can take place? 

While sports should never replace academics, they should have a place at the table to help kids develop the tools they need to be successful adults.

Before I go any further, I need to name the challenge schools are facing: Administrators, teachers, and coaches are making impossible decisions because of a gross lack of funding. The work already being done is nothing short of heroic.

This conversation isn’t about funding. It’s about mindset. Too often, we pit educational tools against each other: arts vs. athletics, STEM vs. P.E. But what if they could work together? 

Some students thrive in traditional classroom settings. My kids fall into that group. School has always come naturally to them. But when the first time they stepped on a soccer field, they had to wrestle with failure in new ways school hadn’t required.

Because their academics had felt easy, my kids didn’t know how to respond when things didn’t come easily in sports. While they were praised for their success in school, their failure on the field brought critique and discomfort. At first, they shut down when they didn’t get it right. They would get frustrated and self-critical, claiming, “I’ll never be able to do this!” Then, over time, they learned the lesson we hope every kid learns: They can do hard things if they stick with it.

For other students, the process works in reverse. While they might struggle in the classroom, they light up under the lights. The field becomes the first place they feel confident, focused, and successful. If youth sports were viewed as a partner to education, these students could learn to apply the mindset they’ve already developed through sport to their academics.

The kind of development educators often hope to foster in a classroom is already happening organically on fields and courts. It’s easy to dismiss these moments as feel-good stories, but they’re actually meaningful learning experiences. Imagine what could happen if schools were to leverage that development and apply it to our classrooms.

Schools don’t need to choose between academics and athletics. But they also shouldn’t pretend that integration will be easy.

To do this well, it will take coaches who care more about kids than win-loss records. Coaches who understand they’re shaping people, not just players.

It will take teachers who can connect what happens on the field with what’s being taught in the classroom. Teachers who are willing to leverage the emotional growth sports often bring out.

And it will take administrators who can walk the tightrope of budget constraints, parental expectations, and student needs while still finding a way to lead with intentionality.

This isn’t about building a sports-first system. It’s about enhancing our student-first system in a way that recognizes how different environments can shape a child while treating each environment with the respect and thoughtfulness it deserves.

When we dismiss sports as something kids do outside of school, we risk missing one of the most impactful classrooms where kids are already discovering who they are, developing emotional resilience, and learning how to work hard. We also lose the opportunity to reinforce the growth already happening. And we leave too many students without the tools they need in the classroom.

If the goal is to raise kids who can navigate challenges and keep growing when things get hard, we can’t afford to overlook the role sports already play in the lives of our students. Not as competition to the classroom, but as a partner. 

The White House on Wednesday said it had “” $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania after a transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, in 2022 won several medals in Division I women’s swimming.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Education Department said its Office of Civil Rights had that the state of Maine violated federal Title IX anti-discrimination law after Katie Spencer, a young transgender pole vaulter, won a state championship last month. The department said Maine could jeopardize federal funding if it doesn’t “swiftly and completely” reverse its policies.��

Protests followed after Thomas and Spencer��began competing in women’s competitions and fared better than they previously had in men’s��events.

The moves follow through on a promise Trump made 16 days after his second inauguration, when he issued an threatening to rescind federal funding from schools that let transgender women play on women’s sports teams

As with other aspects of Trump’s presidency, it leaves institutions in the unenviable position of caving before an increasingly aggressive White House — or fighting back in federal court, where many of the legal issues remain unsettled and, in a few cases, have actually favored trans students.

The order’s practical effect: confusion, especially in the roughly half of states that allow transgender athletes to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. These state laws and policies now face a powerful conservative backlash that sees trans athletes’ participation at every level as patently unfair and itself, and seeks to remove them — and their accomplishments — altogether.

Leading the charge: the education department’s Office of Civil Rights, which has opened more than half a dozen investigations in two months. Along with probes of anti-semitism, trans athletic policies now dominate OCR’s investigative portfolio, despite to the office by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Jackie Gharapour Wernz, a former OCR attorney who now consults for educational institutions, called the new administration’s approach “unprecedented — but it’s not even just unprecedented. It’s so much further beyond precedent that it just feels like we’re in a completely different world at this point.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said.

‘Fairness and safety’

Penn, Trump’s alma mater, late Wednesday said it had not received any notification or details of the action. But a spokesperson told the that the university “has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams.”

A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

As with Maine, several states are finding that adhering to their own laws can invite a federal investigation — and an abrupt cut in aid — from an administration that is comfortable calling out educators who they see as failing to protect young women in sports. 

The complexity in many ways mirrors public perception. Recent , for instance, find that while 56% of Americans support policies that protect trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces, 66% favor laws and policies that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. 

“As a parent, I’m concerned about fairness and safety for my girls in sports,” said Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty and a mother of four. Allowing “biological males” to compete in women’s events, she said, “undermines the level playing field” that federal regulations were meant to protect, “given the inherent physical advantages men have.”

In 2025, the issue no longer falls entirely along ideological lines. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said transgender athletes playing in women’s sports is “” to female athletes. 

States evenly divided

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding, but whether that applies to trans students and athletics remains an open question. President Biden in 2022 put forth a sweeping set of changes protecting students against discrimination based not just on sex but on sexual orientation and gender identity, in effect making transgender students a protected class. But the proposal sidestepped the question of athletics, with administration officials at the time saying those regulations would come soon. 

They never came, and the Title IX protections for LGBTQ students have been repeatedly struck down by the courts. Biden put forth a draft rule to protect transgender athletes that acknowledged fairness issues but suggested they could be solved on a case-by-case basis. He last December in advance of Trump’s second term.��

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a transgender ban on women’s and girls’ sports, but the Senate a bid to consider it earlier this month, leaving educators in many states to figure it out on their own.

Add to that in federal courts that have upheld the rights of trans athletes, said Wernz, and schools are in “an incredibly tough position,” especially considering Trump’s order. 

State laws are on the subject: 23 states and the District of Columbia allow transgender students to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

Five days after Trump’s executive order, , which oversees sports in public and private schools, that it was banning trans athletes from participating in girls’ sports, saying schools needed “clear and consistent direction” on the issue. For more than a decade, the group had allowed trans athletes to play via a waiver if they undertook sex reassignment before puberty or if they did hormone therapy, among other requirements.

The league, which oversees 318 schools and about 177,000 students, said just five students applied for waivers last year.

In addition to Maine and Penn, OCR is investigating state athletic associations in California and Minnesota, where officials have said they’ll continue allowing trans athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity. On March 3, it announced an into a school district in Washington State that allowed a trans player to compete in basketball last month.

It’s also San Jose State University and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for what it says are violations of Title IX.

Wernz, the former OCR attorney, who worked in both the Obama and Trump administrations, said schools and districts must now decide, “‘Do we comply with the federal courts, or do we comply with the Department of Education?’ Frankly it’s a pretty new situation.” 

‘We’ll see you in court.’

To many, the case of Thomas, the Penn swimmer, has come to epitomize the current complications. In 2022, Thomas, who’d on the men’s team before transitioning in 2019, rose from 554th-ranked in the 200-yard freestyle to fifth. In the 500-yard freestyle, she rose from 65th as a male athlete to first in women’s competition.

While Penn and several teammates supported her during the process, three former Penn swimmers to remove Thomas’ achievements from the record books.

Pennsylvania’s interscholastic athletics governing body recently its policy to recognize Trump’s executive order, but the Philadelphia School District said it’ll ignore the change in favor of its own policy, adopted in 2016, which allows trans athletes to play in sports that match their gender identity. 

While a few experts say that could jeopardize an estimated $216 million in Title I funding, Philadelphia civil rights attorney noted that Trump’s executive order doesn’t carry the weight of law — or supersede Title IX, state law or multiple court decisions that have sided with trans students.

She said Trump “has been purposely sowing a lot of chaos and confusion,” with schools fearful of losing federal funds.

The push to ban trans athletes comes despite the fact that vanishingly small numbers of these students are pushing to play. Shortly after Trump issued the executive order, NCAA President Charlie Baker said the organization would to restrict female athletic competitions solely to student athletes “assigned female at birth.” Several sports associations followed suit, even though Baker last year told Congress that of the more than 500,000 students it represents, fewer than 10 are transgender.

Chris Young, the principal of , a 720-student regional school in Newport, Vt., near the Canadian border, rarely thinks about the topic. He knows that if trans female athletes in Vermont want to play girl’s sports teams, they can. Though he has no trans athletes on his roster, Vermont says treating students differently is illegal. 

In an interview, he recalled several conversations with students asking whether it’s fair that a young person who’s transitioning from male to female could gain a competitive advantage in sports. 

“My response is, ‘No one does this as a choice. It’s who they are, and it’s an incredibly difficult road to go down if you are a transgender athlete,’” he said. “‘No one chooses that because it’s easy, and no one chooses that because they want to win a state championship or set a record. That’s just not how it works.’”

But when trans athletes like Thomas win at nearly any competition, the backlash is often outsized. In Maine, Spencer, the transgender pole vaulter, in mid-February won the Class B state championship in pole vaulting with a jump of 10 feet, 6 inches — more than six inches higher than the next competitor. That led state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, to post on X that in a previous season, as a male athlete, Spencer had in the event.

The issue a few days later, when President Trump got into a televised spat with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, during a meeting of governors at the White House. With Mills’ colleagues looking on, Trump called her out, asking if she’d comply with his executive order.

Mills said she’s “complying with state and federal laws.” Maine bars discrimination based on gender identity.

Trump responded, “We are the federal law,” and threatened to pull Maine’s federal funding. 

“We’ll see you in court,” she replied.

Later that day, the education department . Days later, the administration released a that all but foretold the outcome, saying it’s “shameful” that Mills “refuses to stand with women and girls.” 

For her part, Mills says no president can withhold funding authorized by Congress “in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will.” 

In a , she added, “Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill formally introduced Bill Belichick as its head football coach at a Thursday press conference after negotiating a $50 million contract over five years.

It’s Belichick’s first time coaching college football after 24 years with the New England Patriots of the National Football League. He led the Patriots to nine Super Bowl appearances and six victories, and won an additional two championships as an assistant coach with the New York Giants for an NFL-record of eight Super Bowl wins. He started his pro coaching career as an assistant with the then-Baltimore Colts in 1975.

UNC announced the decision on Wednesday. Belichick is replacing Mack Brown, who was fired from the head coach position last month.

“I’ve always wanted to coach in college football, and it just never really worked out,” Belichick said. “I had some good years in the NFL, so that was okay, but this is really a dream come true.”

The allows for a salary of $10 million each year, a colossal, but far from unprecedented, amount for college football. Only seven college football coaches made more than $10 million in 2024. Belichick becomes the highest paid state employee in North Carolina history.

It’s double the salary Brown earned during his final season at UNC.

The university also reportedly agreed to increase its NIL — name, image, and likeness — package for football from $4 million to $20 million while recruiting Belichick, according to .

“As I’ve said many times, we want to be the best public university in the United States, and that means excellence in everything we do,” UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts said. “We want to compete with the best, and we’ve hired the best coach.”

Although the final two years on his contract are not guaranteed, there are opportunities for bonuses of up to $3.5 million annually. Belichick also receives benefits like membership to the Chapel Hill Country Club.

Earlier in the day, the university’s board of trustees voted to approve the terms of employment for Belichick and women’s soccer coach Damon Nahas during a closed session.

The UNC System Board of Governors University Personnel Committee and the full board held back-to-back emergency meetings Thursday, discussing the contract in closed sessions.

Neither group officially revealed what they discussed, but one member congratulated Chancellor Roberts.

“Thank you to everyone, especially to Chancellor Roberts and his team, and we’re very excited for you,” Chair Wendy Murphy said.

Certain terms of coaches’ contracts require the approval of the UNC System president and the Board of Governors, according to .

“The Board of Governors does not approve the final contract, but did authorize certain proposed terms, as required by policy, prior to the institution executing the contract,” spokesperson Andy Wallace wrote to NC Newsline in an email.

Asked at Thursday’s press conference if in this new era of revenue sharing and player compensation, it was financially sound for the university to commit so much to football and men’s basketball (head men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis is paid just under $3 million in total compensation), athletic director Bubba Cunningham said he believed in this strategic investment.

“I think if you go all in on those two sports, those two sports provide all of the finances for the rest of the department,” said Cunningham. “The more successful we are on football, the more successful we are on basketball, the more opportunities we’re going to be able to provide for everyone else here. So, I’m delighted with it. And I think our future is incredibly bright.”

While others have expressed some concerns about the high-profile hire and where the football program may be headed, the 72-year-old coach sought to allay those fears.

“Excited for the opportunity to build and develop young student-athletes, young men, and prepare them for their life, either in the NFL or professionally. But the lessons they learn will be professional lessons,” Belichick said.

Building a more professional program will cost the university and its donors more money.

The contract also stipulates the university will work in good faith with the new head coach to contract with a general manager for the football program for a duration that matches that of Belichick at a compensation level not to exceed $1.5 million. Multiple media outlets have reported Michael Lombardi, who has worked for several NFL teams, will hold that position at UNC.

The Tar Heels last won a football conference championship in 1980. After a 6-6 season, they’ll face the UConn Huskies in Boston’s Wasabi Fenway Bowl on Dec. 28.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

At this year’s summer Paralympics in Paris, earned a silver medal in the F64 shot put. She also competed in the F64 discus event and came in 10th place. F64 is a for Paralympians with limb deficiencies and leg length differences.

“With able-bodied kids, they can use their body differently,” Middleton, a sophomore at Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga, California, The Daily Bulletin in an interview last year. “They have both of their legs. They can do certain things a lot stronger. But it doesn’t matter because I can still compete with them.” 

Middleton is one of three inspiring high school Paralympians on Team USA who are competing in Paris this year. Here are their stories:

ARELLE MIDDLETON, 16

Middleton was with a congenital femoral deficiency, which means her left leg is shorter than her right leg and her left hip is underdeveloped. Despite physical challenges, she competes alongside athletes without disabilities in track and field high school meets.

In 2023, when Middleton was just 15 years old, she was named U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School Female Field Athlete of the Year, and also a spot on the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School All-American list.

Her mother, former WNBA player Sandra Van Embricqs, encouraged Middleton to get involved in sports at an early age.

Middleton joined the Challenged Athletes Foundation, or CAF, at age 12 and frequently won competitions. But when she entered high school, her mother strongly encouraged her to join the Los Osos track and field team.

“I didn’t know how I would feel being with able-bodied kids,” Middleton told The Daily Bulletin. “They wouldn’t really understand as much as kids with a disability would understand, but I met some great people here. It’s good to be part of something with your school.”

The Paralympian plans to compete in both wheelchair basketball and track and field after she graduates in 2026. She believes cross-training will benefit her performance in each sport.

Several college basketball programs have already Middleton.

JORDAN WHITE, 15

At 15 years old, Jordan White is the youngest archer from the U.S. to for the Paralympics this summer. 

A sophomore at Hill Country Christian School of Austin, White’s math teacher Christopher Felleisen calls him a “phenomenal student.”

He’s also a quick learner. The Austin, Texas, native tried archery for the first time less than four years ago when he was looking for a new activity to keep him busy during COVID. He has since won six national records. And less than a year ago, he began working toward competing in Paris.

White was with a right leg that is shorter than the left, challenging his flexibility. He dedicates six to seven days a week to perfecting his form, strength, and mental agility and understands the role he plays in enhancing the representation of people with disabilities in archery. 

“I really hope that I can pave the way for other young disabled archers,” he Hill Country News in August.

“Jordan is a hard worker, asks great questions and is an extremely high achiever,” Felleisen told The 74. “What’s exciting about having Jordan in class is that he’s dedicated to doing well and it’s seen in his athletic performance, but his level of achievement is not very different in the classroom.”

White, who is part of a close-knit group of friends known as the ‘Lunch Bunch,’ takes part in his  high school’s engineering pathway program, which focuses on engineering and robotics classes. He’s also a member of the National Junior Honor Society and the yearbook staff. 

“He’s known for being incredibly intelligent and he’s at the top of all his classes, and everyone knows it,” added his academic and college advisor Jessica Pyo.

His teachers say they’re closely following his performance at the Paralympics.

“It looks like he’s having a lot of fun and this is a great story for him to tell, especially with college applications coming soon.” Pyo said.

MAYLEE PHELPS, 17

At just 17, Maylee Phelps has taken wheelchair tennis by storm and has secured a win in the first round of women’s singles in Paris. 

Phelps, a high school junior in Portland, Oregon, was with spina bifida, a condition where the spinal cord does not develop properly. This requires her to wear a leg brace and use a wheelchair.

The Paralympian began competing nationally at age 12, the International Tennis Federation’s Wheelchair Tennis Junior of the Year in 2023 and she scored the No. 1 position on the Cruyff Foundation Girls’ Junior Ranking. 

Phelps her homeschool schedule with at least five days a week of tennis practice and strength training. 

“She just absorbs,” U.S. national wheelchair tennis coach John Devorss the University of Oregon. “You tell her something and it just takes a few times and she’s correcting it herself, which is a great characteristic of any athlete is just be really coachable.”

Phelps and Devorss train in Salem, Oregon, which is more than an hour south of Phelps’ home in Portland. 

In her free time, the tennis player enjoys puzzles and playing with her dog Otis. She also volunteers at Shriners Hospital for Children, introducing children with disabilities to tennis.

A federal judge ordered Hanover County Public Schools late Friday to temporarily cease blocking a transgender middle school student from trying out for and, if selected, playing on a sports team this school year.

In February, the student, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, filed a lawsuit claiming the school division violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

ACLU stated that the ruling found that the school board “likely violated” both when it banned the Hanover student from the tennis team.

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“This order is a reminder to school boards that protecting transgender young people is part of protecting girls’ sports,” said legal director Eden Heilman, in a statement. “And it’s a flashing red light to any Virginia school board that might be tempted to think that VDOE’s anti-trans model policies give it license to abuse its power. As the court reminded Hanover County School Board in its ruling, no state policies can shield Virginia schools from accountability for violating federal law.”

Last year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration overhauled the model policies for transgender and nonbinary students designed under former Gov. Ralph Northam to protect the privacy and rights of such students.

In February, ACLU and Freshfields filed three lawsuits challenging the Virginia Department of Education on the policies that some schools have adopted.

In opposition to a student’s right to decide who finds out about their gender status out of fear of being bullied or harassed, the governor sided with parents’ rights, directing the administration to overhaul the policies.

The administration the policies to require parental approval for any changes to students’ “names, nicknames, and/or pronouns,” direct schools to keep parents “informed about their children’s well-being” and require that student participation in activities and athletics and use of bathrooms be based on sex, “except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires.”

Freshfields and ACLU filed the Hanover case in two courts, the Eastern District of Virginia and the Hanover County Circuit Court. The third lawsuit involving a York County student was in July. That suit claimed that at least one teacher had refused to address the student by her correct first name.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect that the Hanover case is being heard separately in the federal and county courts. 

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

In just a few weeks, these Olympians will be back to learning English and math with a proud story to tell.

Rivera, the youngest athlete on Team USA, a gold medal for the women’s gymnastics team finals, alongside decorated gymnasts Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee.

“This was such an amazing experience and just being with the team to support them meant the world to me,” Rivera after receiving her gold medal in Paris. “It was so surreal.”

The 16-year-old New Jersey native did not compete as part of gymnastics team’s final competition, however. Rivera failed to qualify for the final based on her performance in two individual events — the bars and beam. Her overall score still helped the U.S. women’s gymnastics team advance and clinch the gold.

absolutely loving the commentators talking about how important hezly rivera is to this team and how just because she isn’t competing, doesn’t mean she contributed any less to wherever they stand at the end of the night

— aman (@royaltothebay)

Rivera attends Inspire Academy, an online school that allows her the flexibility to balance a rigorous training schedule.

Like Rivera, Wilson in the first leg of the U.S. men’s 4×400-meter relay, helping the team to qualify for the final and making him the youngest male track and field athlete from the United States to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

Although Wilson, who is a rising junior at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, admitted he “didn’t run his best,” he praised his teammates including Rai Jefferson, Christopher Bailey and Vernon Norwood, who helped support him during the run for gold. And he returned the favor as he them on from the stands of the Stade de France as they secured an Olympic-record victory. 

“I did what people said was the impossible…” Wilson on Instagram. “I’m the youngest US male track athlete to receive a gold medal at the Olympics!” 

The track and field sensation attention on social media when he his thoughts about the upcoming school year following his performance in Paris. He took to X and said, “Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks #Gold #OlympicGamesParis.”

Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks

— Quincy “Q” Wilson (@QuincyWilson5)

Jokes in reply immediately came flying in from fans after Wilson made this post.

“When the teacher asks for answers, raise your medal instead of your hand,” one fan said.  

“Them ‘what did yall do over summer break’ conversations gonna hit different lmao,” another added.

Like her high school Team USA counterparts, Shackell’s preliminary round participation helped earn her and her teammates Olympic medals. She a silver medal in the 4×200 freestyle relay with teammates including Katie Ledecky, Paige Madden and fellow high schooler Claire Weinstein. She also secured gold in the 4×100 medley relay with Regan Smith, Lilly King and Gretchen Walsh.

The 17-year-old, who will begin her senior year at Carmel High School this week, has made history as Carmel’s first female student to win an Olympic medal in swimming.

Many know her as an Olympian. We know her as a student. Welcome back to our Senior Greyhound ! We are so proud of you. Go Hounds!

— Tim Phares (@Tim4Phares)

“I was just happy to be there and happy to go as fast as I can, and get the girls the next night a good spot,” Shackell . “I’ve been wanting a gold medal or like any medal since I was little, like 8 years old and dreaming of that moment. To be able to hold it is crazy, I’ve been looking at it everyday.”

Shackell is also the second female high school student from Indiana to win an Olympic medal in swimming.

For Rivera, Wilson and Shackell, many fans anticipate their return to the Olympics podium in 2028, when the U.S. will host the Summer Games in Los Angeles, California. They’ve just got to finish their homework first. 

Learn more about the other high school students we rooted for on Team USA this summer here. 

Among the athletes competing on Team USA this summer, several are still in high school making their mark in sports ranging from gymnastics to skateboarding. Many of these students are first time Olympians, who will be competing while also managing their class work and other academic responsibilities. 

Young stars on Team USA, such as gymnast Hezly Rivera and sprinter Quincy Wilson, are already rising fan-favorites. 

Meet six high schoolers we’re rooting for on Team USA. Let the games begin!

PAIGE HEYN, 16

Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at the and is returning this year in Paris. 

All eyes will be on Tempe, Arizona’s Paige Heyn, one of the fastest rising women in the sport. Heyn is “almost single-handedly responsible for that level of progression in women’s skateboarding,” John Nicholson, Heyn’s coach with USA Skateboarding, said. “It’s funny to be a pioneer at 16. In a matter of six months, she has directly influenced her competition.”

“I don’t really do normal 16-year-old stuff,” Heyn said.

Known as a switch skater, Heyn’s ability to skate with both her left and right foot forward has set her apart as she competes. 

Heyn is a sophomore enrolled in the United States Performance Academy (USPA), an online middle and high school for young elite athletes. Despite constant travel and time zone changes, she prioritizes her academics, according to her USPA learning coach Blair Lunn. 

“She is really enjoying her World History class,” Lunn told The 74. “She is also learning American Sign Language.” 

CLAIRE WEINSTEIN, 17

Claire Weinstein became one of the youngest swimmers to for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials at just 13 years old. Now at 17, she intends to keep making history.

With a lifelong record of straight A’s — which she’s recently demonstrated at the online Laurel Springs School — Weinstein’s teachers and trainers applaud her hard work, talent and focus.

“Claire absorbs information and training like a sponge,” Weinstein’s former full-time coach Carle Fierro told The 74. “She is efficient in quickly applying corrections to her technique, and is able to make connections in the water a lot of swimmers are unable to do.”

Fierro praised Weinstein for her remarkable sense of humor and hours of free time spent teaching young kids to swim. The teenager has committed to a decorative career as a top swimming recruit in her class at University of California-Berkeley. 

She is interested in either studying law or medicine, Claire’s mother Diane Weinstein told The 74.

QUINCY WILSON, 16

16-year-old Quincy Wilson a spot on the Team USA relay team, making history as the youngest-ever male U.S. track and field Olympian.

The upcoming junior is also an honor roll student at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland.

Wilson brings “absolute joy to the classroom through his excitement to learn something new” and a “positive, respectful, inquisitive nature to each subject, enhancing the learning of his classmates,” Bullis Head of Upper School Robert Pollinco said. 

Wilson has received an array of prestigious honors at Bullis, including the Freshman Manuel José Baca, Jr. Joy of Living Award — and most recently, the Sophomore Head of Upper School Award earlier this spring. 

When not on the track, Wilson enjoys video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty with his friends. 

Pollinco said Wilson is seen as a “consummate scholar, leader, athlete, artist, explorer and most importantly, true friend at Bullis School.”

ALEX SHACKELL, 17

17-year-old Alex Shackell the first female swimmer from Indiana’s renowned Carmel High School to make a U.S. Olympic team. Shackell recognizes she is a part of not only the standing history of Indiana sports, but the athletic legacy of her high school.

Carmel’s swimming program won its consecutive state championship under coach Chris Plumb’s leadership, who believed Shackell’s best opportunity at becoming an Olympian was if she competed in the 200-meter butterfly — and that’s exactly what happened. 

Shackell is a rising junior at Carmel, but has committed to swimming at University of California-Berkeley, where she will be a conference title contender. There, she will her older brother Aaron Shackell, who’s also competing in his first Olympic games this year.

THOMAS HEILMAN, 17

Earlier this summer, 17-year-old Thomas Heilman the youngest American male swimmer to qualify for an Olympics team since Michael Phelps.

However, Heilman dismisses comparisons to the Olympic champion, who has a total of 28 medals.

“It’s always great to be in the same conversation as [Phelps], but I’m trying not to worry about that too much and trying to take things day by day,” Heilman during a press conference after earning his ticket to Paris.

Heilman, an upcoming senior at Western Albemarle High School in Crozet, Virginia, and of the greatest high school swimming recruits of all time, has committed to the University of Virginia.

HEZLY RIVERA, 16

New Jersey native Hezly Rivera is the youngest person competing on Team USA’s roster.

After moving to Texas in 2021, Rivera began at World Olympics Gymnastics Academy. There, she is coached directly by Valeri and Anna Liukin, the parents of Olympic champion Nastia Liukin. The gym has collectively earned 36 World and Olympic medals, having trained Olympians like Carly Patterson and Gabby Douglas.

While Rivera enjoys baking in her downtime (her favorite creations include red velvet and chocolate cakes), spending time with her dog and laying down to rest and recover from six days of training is just as rewarding. 

Rivera attends Inspire Academy, an online school that allows her the flexibility to focus on training full time.

If adopted, school systems in that “categorically” ban transgender athletes could find themselves caught between state and federal laws, a tension that is likely to play out in the courts.

Under the proposed rule, however, schools and colleges could “adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation” in specific sports — particularly at the more competitive high school and college levels. That would effectively bar some transgender girls from participation.

“Some sex-related distinctions in sports are permissible as long as the school ensures overall equal athletic participation opportunities,” a senior administration official said in a briefing with reporters, noting the department’s effort to address the shifting legal landscape on an issue that has sharply divided the country since President Joe Biden took office. 

The rule will be published in the coming weeks, the official said, and available for public comment for 30 days.

“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. 

The proposed rule makes good on a promise Biden issued on his first day as president, when he released an stating that Title IX protections against discrimination extend to students based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. Since then, banning transgender students from competing in girls sports has become a defining issue for Republicans. Just this week, Kansas lawmakers overrode the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly and imposed a ban on transgender athletes competing in kindergarten through college. And 17 states that they would sue if the department went through with efforts to “redefine biological sex to include gender identity.” 

But administration officials believe they’ve struck an appropriate compromise. “The proposed rule that we offer today is our best judgment,” the department official said. “We are confident in our legal opinion.”

The proposal would require schools to carefully balance issues of inclusion and fairness, and nods toward evolving understanding of how children’s bodies develop during puberty. It states that most students in the elementary grades would be able to play sports consistent with their gender identity and likely be able to continue doing so in middle school. At higher levels, schools would have to consider the specific sport and competitiveness level before determining if transgender students should be excluded. Schools would be allowed to decide for themselves, the official said, whether limiting trans students’ participation meets an educational goal.

“This is a high, demanding standard that will be difficult for schools to meet,” said Scott Skinner-Thompson, an associate law professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder. 

The administration’s measure may not go far enough for transgender student activists or those who think inclusion hinders the goals of women’s sports.

Conservatives who have opposed the administration’s stance on the issue said it puts school districts in the middle. The proposal, according to , places “the onus on school districts” to determine whether their policy would violate the law.

Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. went further, promising in a statement that “we will never allow boys to play in girls’ sports. We will fight this overreach tooth and nail. And we will stop at nothing to uphold the protections afforded women under Title IX.” 

LGBTQ advocates say conservatives are discriminating against vulnerable students who make up just . 

Some advocates welcomed the proposed rule’s language that across-the-board bans on trans girls participating in girls and women’s sports violate the law, but expressed concern that some trans students would still face discrimination.

Title IX “protections don’t stop when a student leaves the classroom to go out onto the soccer field or a volleyball court or into a bathroom,” said Sasha Buchert, nonbinary and transgender rights project director at Lambda Legal, a law firm and advocacy organization. 

The draft rule also comes as the GOP-led House prepares to vote on — the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act — that would essentially turn state bans into federal policy. The legislation is not expected to pass in the Senate. 

The state bans have been the subject of numerous legal challenges. The release of the rule late in the afternoon before a holiday weekend coincided with the Thursday of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey’s emergency request to allow its 2021 Save Women’s Sports law to go into effect. Becky Pepper-Jackson, identified male at birth, and her mother Heather Jackson to prevent the law from being implemented, saying that it violates Title IX and the U.S. Constitution. 

The court’s ruling means that Pepper-Jackson, 12, can continue participating on her school’s cross country and track teams while the U.S, Appeals Court for the 4th Circuit considers her case.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and Lambda Legal called the state’s request “a baseless and cruel effort to keep Becky from where she belongs — playing alongside her peers as a teammate and as a friend.”

The draft is the second part of the administration’s rewrite of Title IX. Released last year, the initial draft extended Title IX protections to LGBTQ students but left unanswered questions about school sports.

The administration largely aims to reverse a Trump-era rule that required live hearings as part of investigations into sexual harassment and misconduct. The proposed rule also removes a requirement that defines harassment as “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.” 

The department had to review nearly 350,000 comments on Title IX, with many focusing on sports. 

“We’ve been very grateful to be able to take account of the very wide variety of views on this topic,” the official said. Comments from students, professional athletes, teachers and others were incorporated to “inform that proposed law.” 

There’s one hitch: According to , districts are already spending, or planning to spend, almost a quarter of funds from the American Rescue Plan on facilities and operations.

“Getting clarifications and new restrictions this late in the game is tough on [districts],” said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. “What happens if money is already approved and spent before these recent” guidelines were released?

The department was especially pointed about using federal dollars to build and upgrade sports facilities. The school district, for example, paid for new athletic fields and the in Alabama renovated weight rooms

Such expenses would not be allowed unless districts can connect the project to COVID preparedness and response, the document said. “It is unclear, for example, how constructing a swimming pool is related to the pandemic,” according to the department.

The Milwaukee district declined to comment on its use of funds for athletics-related projects, while the Wisconsin Department of Education said it is still reviewing the guidance to “determine next steps.” Alabama officials did not respond to requests for comment.

With billions in COVID relief funds for schools still unspent, school finance experts say the guidance could confuse district leaders who have been waiting for the guidance for months. But with it dropping before the holidays, it could be well into January before states offer webinars or other opportunities to explain it to districts.

The document is not law, but says leaders should be prepared to justify how their projects relate to the pandemic. The has picked up this fall, according to Roza’s tracking of expenditures. A recent survey from , however, showed that over 40% of those responding said they were struggling to navigate compliance standards related to spending the funds.��

In March, the department schools Superintendent Richard Woods that it was OK for districts to use the money to cover rising fuel costs. The new guidance doesn’t specifically address that scenario and only gives expenses “related to improving indoor air quality” as an “acceptable” example. 

Department officials told The 74 that the newest information is consistent with past guidance and that they have always “urged caution around long-term facilities and capital expenditures.” They said whether an expense is allowable is still up to state officials. 

“It really isn’t our role to ensure that states are looking at every single situation in the exact same way because … the context matters,” the official said.

Still, Elleka Yost, director of advocacy for the Association of School Business Officials International, said the “tone” of the document bothers her.

“The quality of school facilities impacts student health, well-being, attendance, engagement and learning,” she said. “Investing funds in facility improvements should be seen as part of a district’s strategy to recover from the pandemic and improve student learning rather than as something contradictory or unessential to achieving those goals.”

Some district leaders have made the case for spending relief funds on athletic facilities by saying they .

Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director for AASA, the School Superintendents Association, that instead of providing flexibility for districts with classroom additions going up or extensive renovations already underway, the department chose to “criticize these decisions and chastise districts for these expenditures.”

The department provided no more details in response to the requests for extensions on spending the funds that came from AASA and , but said it will lay out a process “at a later date.”

Districts worried about obligating the money by the 2024 deadline could pay ahead for services delivered over multiple years; the document lists a software license as an example. But it also warns that this practice is “not good stewardship” of federal funds.

Teachers and parents

Since the American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021, experts like Roza have also cautioned districts against using the funds for teacher and staff pay raises because it would be hard to continue covering those higher costs when the money runs out. 

But the guidance notes that the funds can be used for “permanent salary increases.” Austin Reid, senior legislative director for federal education policy at the National Conference of State Legislatures, finds that advice puzzling, given talk of a .

“Funding full roles or permanent salary increases can still be a risky bet by local districts, especially given the uncertainty in the economy,” he said.

Paying parents incentives to ensure their children go to school, on the other hand, is off the table, according to the department, which called attendance a “mandatory activity.”

“This one frustrated me, in part because we have a massive problem with chronic absenteeism,” Roza said. “Seems like we shouldn’t be invoking the notion that school is mandatory so soon after school became un-mandatory when it shut down for a year.”

Under the proposed changes, announced Thursday, the law would protect victims against discrimination based not just on sex but on sexual orientation and gender identity, in effect adding transgender students as a protected class. Current regulations are silent on these students’ rights.

But the proposal sidesteps the question of transgender athletes’ rights to compete in girls’ sports, an explosive issue administration officials said will get its own set of regulations at a later date.

“This is personal to me as an educator and as a father,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said during the announcement. “I want the same opportunities afforded to my daughter and my son — and my transgender cousin — so they can achieve their potential and reach their dreams.”

The changes come 50 years to the day after President Richard Nixon signed the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in education.

Cardona on Thursday noted that LGBTQ youth “face bullying and harassment, experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide, and too often grow up feeling that they don’t belong.”

The proposed regulations, he said, “send a loud message to these students and all our students: You belong in our schools. You have worthy dreams and incredible talents. You deserve the opportunity to shine authentically and unapologetically. The Biden-Harris administration has your back.”

Education and civil rights groups welcomed the proposed rules, with Ronn Nozoe, CEO of the saying they “greatly strengthen principals’ abilities to ensure schools provide what students need.” 

Amit Paley, CEO of, a suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth, applauded the administration’s bid to extend Title IX protections to sexual orientation and gender identity, saying, “School should be a place where students learn and are comfortable being themselves, not a source of bullying and discrimination.”

But the proposed rules irked some conservative groups. In a, Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, called the move a “federal overreach” and dubbed the proposed regulations “The Biden administration’s ‘Must Say They’ rewrite of Title IX,” refering to the preferred pronoun of some who are transgender. 

“American families should be deeply concerned by the proposed rewrite of Title IX,” Neily said. “From rolling back due process protections, to stomping on the First Amendment, to adding ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ into a statute that can only be so changed by Congressional action, the Biden Administration has shown that they place the demands of a small group of political activists above the concerns of millions of families across the country.”

Taken together, the proposed regulations would create a sharp contrast to Trump administration rules adopted in 2020 under then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Under DeVos, for instance, schools were prohibited from opening Title IX cases if an alleged assault took place away from school grounds. Under the new rules, schools would be required to address “hostile environments” in programs and activities, even if the conduct that contributed to the hostile environment “occurred off-campus or outside the United States,” a senior official told reporters.

“Our view now is that the existing regulations do not best fulfill Congress’ mandate in Title IX,” the official said. “There is more we can do to ensure that students do not experience sex discrimination in school.”

Cardona’s proposed changes both expand the definition of sexual harassment and potentially limit opportunities for students accused of sexual assault or harassment to confront their accusers. Administration officials said the new regulations would require schools to take “prompt and effective” action on campus sex discrimination.

But they also said the regulations in effect loosen requirements on schools’ sex assault investigations: The proposed rules, for instance, would “permit but not require” schools to hold live hearings in which accused students can directly confront survivors.

A senior department official, who briefed reporters Thursday on background, said the administration has concluded that a live hearing, which resembles a courtroom procedure, “is one, but not the only way, to address investigation and to determine what has occurred.” The official noted that the vast majority of schools were not conducting live hearings before the Trump administration began requiring them in 2020. “And it was clear to us that a live hearing was not essential to determination of outcomes and a fair process,” the official said.

In a statement, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), said the move “returns to the deeply flawed campus disciplinary process of the Obama Administration, which led to hundreds of inconsistent judgements and more than 300 legal challenges. The existing rule struck a balance that follows the law and is fair to both parties.”

Notably absent from Thursday’s announcement was any mention of Title IX’s application to athletics, which has caused a furor due to a handful of transgender athletes’ bids to compete in girls’ sporting events.

The administration said it will engage in a separate rulemaking process to address the law’s application to athletics and gender, but offered no immediate timeline for the process. A senior department official said the topic “deserves its own separate rule-making process.”

Administration officials have previously said Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination and harassment in programs receiving federal funds, will echo the in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which extended protections against sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace to LGBTQ employees.

While the department’s interpretation of the Bostock ruling doesn’t mention sports, the Biden administration last year filed in a West Virginia case in which a transgender girl who wants to compete with girls on her middle school cross country team is challenging the state’s 2021 law banning students born as male from participating in girls’ sports. 

A group of 15 Republican-led states, led by Montana Attorney General, has threatened to challenge the regulations in court,. Since last year, a dozen states have passed legislation prohibiting trans females from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. 

Last week, the , the world governing body for swimming, voted to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in high-level women’s competitions unless they began medical treatments to suppress testosterone production early in their lives.  

The group, known internationally as Fédération internationale de natation, or FINA, said it would also a new, “open” category for athletes who identify as women but do not meet the requirement to compete against people who were female at birth.

By contrast, World Cup and Olympic soccer star Megan Rapinoe last week that she is “100 percent supportive of trans inclusion” in sports, noting that what most people know about the topic comes from “relentless” conservative talking points that don’t reflect reality. 

“Show me the evidence that trans women are taking everyone’s scholarships, are dominating in every sport, are winning every title,” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s just not happening. So we need to start from inclusion, period. And as things arise, I have confidence that we can figure it out. But we can’t start at the opposite. That is cruel. And frankly, it’s just disgusting.”

The public has 60 days to send comments on the new proposal, which could take several months to finalize. 

It was three years after Title IX — the federal civil rights law banning sex discrimination in education — was signed into law. “The issues we are discussing here were the same ones people, including me, were grappling with when the original Title IX regulations regarding single-sex teams were being written,” she said.

The latest debate, about whether Title IX should codify transgender rights — something that could happen when revised regulations are released in the coming weeks — has caused deep divisions, and in some cases, pitted natural allies against each other.

But while the issue is difficult, especially in sports, it’s a mistake to think that things were less complicated when President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law 50 years ago on June 23, 1972.

“Looking back, things always seem simpler, but I remember how fraught the arguments were, and how difficult it was for people to reconsider their beliefs about boys and girls,” said Susan Bailey, who helped implement Title IX while working at the Connecticut Department of Education. The transgender question “is very polarizing, and people once again want a single, simple solution.”

‘Title IX shook all that up’

The fact that it took three years from the time the law was passed to draw up regulations showed that “the Nixon administration did not have the slightest interest in enforcing this law or equality for women and girls,” said Holly Knox, who was a legislative aide in the then-U.S. Office of Education, covering Congressional hearings on sex discrimination. After the law passed, she became disillusioned with government education and enforcement efforts and established the Project on Equal Education Rights at the National Organization of Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Although most of the high-profile disputes involving Title IX — which applies to education programs and activities that receive federal funds — now involve sports or sexual harassment and assault cases, the original impetus was much broader. 

Employment of women teachers and coaches, pregnancy discrimination and admissions to graduate schools, including law and medicine,were all major issues, said Jean Peelen, who was part of the group drafting the final policy for intercollegiate athletics in 1979. 

To demonstrate the law’s impact on graduate admissions, Peelen noted that in 1974, two women were admitted to the University of Alabama’s law school. In 1975, when she entered, 25 percent were women, increasing to 50 percent in 1976. 

In elementary and secondary schools, the legislation affected issues from class assignments to textbooks. As just one example, many K-12 schools scheduled advanced math and advanced English at the same time, so boys were steered toward math and girls toward English. “Title IX shook all that up,” said Bailey, who became a professor of Women’s & Gender Studies and Education at Wellesley College.

One of the most complex questions at the time was what could remain single-sex and what couldn’t, from choirs to gym classes to colleges. In that sense, the transgender debate is “a second-generation issue,” said Dunkle, who worked with both the Association of American Colleges’ Project on the Status and Education of Women and the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

While the latest round of Title IX revisions includes important issues for transgender students beyond athletics, one of the major sticking points is whether allowing trans women to compete on women’s teams discriminates against athletes identified as female at birth.

The arguments and solutions proffered today echo many of those Dunkle grappled with in a 1974 paper she authored: “What Constitutes Equality for Women in Sport?” 

The paper discusses both competitive and non-competitive college sports and highlights discrimination that was almost universal. Examples included one college that didn’t allow women to use a handball court unless a man signed up for her and a large midwestern university that reserved two hours of pool time for “faculty, administrative staff and male students.” There was no reserved time for female students.

Then it tackled how sports teams should be configured, the very issue at the core of the current debate. Dunkle laid out the options: Should competitive sports teams in college be co-educational? Single sex? A women’s, men’s and mixed-sex team? Should teams be based on height and weight? Should top women athletes should be able to apply for a position on the men’s team? While this might allow elite female athletes stronger competition, critics argued it would be administratively unwieldy and result in skimming the best athletes off women’s teams.

 “It is almost painful to read the old paper,” Dunkle said. “There were all these choices and all were imperfect.”

Ultimately, a kind of “separate but equal” option won out for most competitive teams. Of course, decades later there are many of women athletes treated as second-class citizens, but the idea of girls and women playing separately from boys and men on most competitive teams has become the norm.

Backlash to Lia Thomas’s victory

The tell the story of Title IX’s success: Before the law’s passage, there were 300,000 girls and women playing high school and college sports nationwide. Today, there are more than 3 million.

But the transgender issue has unsettled what once seemed resolved. University of Pennsylvania  swimmer heightened the debate after placing first in the 500-yard freestyle event in March. She became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I national championship, but as a man, ranked 65th in the event. 

The emergence of the issue as culture war fodder, particularly among Republicans, makes it all the more uncomfortable for those who have fought for women’s equality and back transgender rights in employment, housing and education.

have already passed bills prohibiting trans girls from competing on girls high school sports teams. Most recently, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill called ” that bans anyone not identified as female at birth from participating in women’s sports in high school and college. If an athlete’s sex is questioned, she would be required to produce a doctor’s note that includes an examination of her “internal and external reproductive anatomy.” The Senate has not yet voted on it.

The American Civil Liberties Union has taken a stand unequivocally the right of trans women to play on women’s teams, and the International Olympic Committee last November issued a that states athletes should not be excluded solely on the basis of their transgender identity or sex variation.

But Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who won three gold and one silver medal for swimming in the 1984 Olympics, argued that allowing trans women to play on women’s sports teams means most women will lose out — which, she said, goes against everything Title IX stands for. 

For Hogshead-Makar, it all comes down to biology. Science, she said, has shown that transgender women — in particular those who have gone through male puberty — will almost always have a substantial physical advantage.

“Equality requires separation,” said Hogshead-Makar, now a lawyer who runs Champion Women, an organization aimed at supporting women and girls in sports and educating about Title IX. In 2020, Sports Illustrated listed her as one of most influential and powerful women in sports. Understanding of the biological differences in trans women is , but shows that there may be residual muscle mass and strength advantages even a year after testosterone suppression.

Hogshead-Makar swam competitively at a time when trainers and coaches gave elite East German athletes disguised as vitamins. The scandal was exposed after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

“They were doped to the gills and everybody knew it,” she said. “And it felt like nobody cared about us. We were expected to be feminine, gracious losers.” She was victorious in the 1984 Olympics, she said, only because the Soviets and much of eastern Europe didn’t compete. The U.S. had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan; four years later, the Soviet Union and its allies said they would not attend the Los Angeles-based Olympics because its competitors would not be safe amid anti-Russian hysteria. 

‘I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not ok’

The move to allow trans girls and women to compete on female teams leaves her and many other women athletes feeling the same way they felt during the doping scandals, she said — forsaken and undefended.

Donna Lopiano, an all-American softball player who heads a sports consulting company, said one option will not fit all trans women. It depends on when they went through puberty, if they received hormone therapy and what sport they’re playing.

She suggested multiple choices need to be considered, some of which mirror those considered by Dunkle in 1974. Should there be men’s and women’s teams, and a third class  open to everyone, including transgender athletes? Should inclusion depend on the sport and whether it requires strength or speed? Should there be handicaps like in golf? Separate scoring?

“We’ve gone through this with athletes with disabilities,” she said. “Fair competition has to outweigh social justice if the idea is identical head-to-head competition.”

Peelen and Knox, both of whom are quick to acknowledge they have no special expertise in transgender issues, have landed on different sides of the question. Peelen said she first agreed that trans girls and women shouldn’t play on female teams.

But once she realized how small the number of such athletes are — estimated at less than 1 percent of the population — she changed her mind.

“In any high school, you could have a girl 14 or 15 years old who is six feet tall, and they let her play,” she said. “If the fear is that trans women are going to take over because they are faster or stronger, that’s true with anyone who doesn’t fit in with the norms.”

She initially contemplated what rules could be applied to even things out, such as factoring in weight and height, but decided, “This is absurd. Why not just recognize for some very small group of people on a sports team in a high school or a college somewhere in the U.S., it could seem unfair?”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, in that banned transgender athletes from playing in girls’ sports, was moved by the same reasoning: Of 750,000 students playing high-school sports in Utah, only four were trangender, and just one played for a girls’ team. He also cited research showing that can reduce the risk of among transgender teens.��

The legislature overrode his veto. 

The numbers of trans athletes could increase as the transgender population as a whole grows. While still a very small minority, the trans population has doubled in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control recently that 1.4 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds identify as transgender and 1.3 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds do so.  

Knox ultimately took the opposite path from Peelen, first believing trans women should be allowed to compete on girls and women’s teams, then reconsidering after learning more about the science.

“I’m delighted Title IX protects LGBTQ people from discrimination in admissions, employment and other areas, but because there are distinct biological differences, it would be unfair to let those who are born male and transitioned after puberty compete against biological women in competitive sports,” Knox said. “I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not ok.” 

Dunkle is still figuring it out. She supports including transgender students in almost all areas but doesn’t see how it could work in athletics without disadvantaging those identified as female from birth. Speaking from experience, she said, “Any policy that they come up with is going to be imperfect. You have to look at the results and effects, not just what looks fair in theory.”