WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), the nation’s most impactful policy organization for women, responds to yet another example of a male athlete taking opportunities away from women in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), this time in NCAA Division I Volleyball. This latest discrimination against women comes on the heels of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) establishing a new policy that preserves single-sex athletic competition and the integrity of women’s collegiate sports. All eyes are on the NCAA to see if members of the NCAA Board of Governors will follow suit and protect women’s collegiate sports.
Adriana McLamb, a spokeswoman for Independent Women’s Forum, former Division 1 volleyball player, and now coach and recruiter to aspiring collegiate female volleyball players, said: “As a volleyball coach and former D1 volleyball athlete, I can speak first hand that the volleyball community has known that this athlete is a biological male since 2020 when Blaire was committed to play on Coastal Carolina’s women’s team. But the NCAA and sports governing bodies, like USA Volleyball, have put the responsibility of the burden of truth on the backs of their female athletes and coaches rather than ensuring equal opportunity and safety of those athletes who trust them with their playing careers.”
McLamb is not only a former NCAA Division I Athlete, AAU All American, and member of the Florida International Women’s Team, she also is a recruiting coordinator working closely with female athletes to help them achieve their dreams of playing at the collegiate level.
“The repeated allowance of male participation in women’s collegiate sports is an egregious betrayal of female athletes. When male athletes participate in women’s sports the severity of injury increases — my story proves it. The NCAA should be looking for ways to minimize risks to athletes, not increase it,” said Payton McNabb, an IWF Ambassador and volleyball player who suffered a debilitating head injury on the volleyball court after a trans-identifying male player spiked the ball into her head. “Allowing even one male athlete to participate in women’s sports inevitably takes an opportunity away from a female – this is a denial of equal opportunity.”
To date, males have stolen over 913 trophies, medals, and titles from women and girls across 441 different competitions and over 30 different sports. More than 639 female athletes have been displaced by males in women’s sporting events and other types of competitions expressly for women.
Urging action from the NCAA, the “Our Bodies, Our Sports” coalition, which is made up of women’s advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum, is calling on current and former NCAA female athletes to speak up and contact the members of the NCAA Board of Governors to follow the lead of the NAIA and protect women’s collegiate sports.
Just today, House Republicans wrote a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker urging “the NCAA to reconsider its current policy that allows biological males to deprive women of a fair opportunity to compete and achieve athletic success. All women in NCAA-affiliated schools should not fear having their athletic accomplishments minimized by biological males.”
Independent Women’s Forum has been leading the fight to call on the NCAA to end its discrimination and save women’s sports. Learn more below:
- IWF and IWLC have produced a first-of-its-kind report entitled, “Competition Report: Title IX, Male-Bodied Athletes, and the Threat To Women’s Sports,” to help athletic associations, policymakers, and courts understand the growing threat to female athletes.
- IWF, alongside a coalition of women’s advocacy groups, led the second “Our Bodies, Our Sports” rally and protest outside the 2024 NCAA Convention. Learn more about the rally HERE.
- Learn more about IWF’s storytelling campaign to fight for fairness in women’s sports, which has amplified the stories of other female athletes who have felt compelled to lend their voice to the fight to save women’s sports and end the discrimination of women HERE.