I played every sport I could; softball through grade school, along with volleyball, basketball, cheerleading and track and field through grade school and high school. I played varsity and was very competitive. Pole vault was my specialty. I broke our school record at 10 feet and vaulted at Illinois College for two years.

Sports were everything to me. This hits so hard for me because as a pole vaulter no matter how good I was, how much weight I lost, or how many extra hours I put in, I was never as good as the boys, and I was the best female in my area. I was so proud of that and so happy to see my hard work pay off.

If I was made to compete with biological boys or women that were taking testosterone, I wouldn’t have been able to compete. All my dreams and accomplishments would have been gone. As a mom of two girls, I fear that they won’t have a place in their team with their own sex. The women that fought so hard for Title IX would cry over what has happened to women’s sports. As a woman who has so much pride in her ability in her sports career, it breaks my heart to see so many female athletes get their wins, titles, and accomplishments ripped away from them.

Thank you to all the athletes that are standing up to try to keep women’s sports for true natural women so that my little girls will have a place to play and compete. Women’s sports should be for biological women.