We are four New England teenagers who propelled the legal battle for fairness in women’s sports

When we first spoke about it, we were really the only ones doing so. Now, it’s one of the most talked about cultural and political issues of the day. From Olympic athletes to politicians running for office; from middle school girls to NCAA athletes; from celebrities to journalists, coaches and parents, people everywhere are discussing males competing against women in sports and whether that’s fair.

All four of us are track athletes from Connecticut. When we were in high school, we were shocked to face not just one, but two male athletes in our girls’ track-and-field competitions. It was utterly disheartening. 

In just three years, those males completely reshaped girls’ track – and our high school experience – as they broke 17 track meet records, took 15 state championship titles, and deprived girls of advancement opportunities more than 85 times.

Four years ago, we filed the first federal lawsuit of its kind in the nation, challenging our state’s athletic policy that allowed males to compete on the girls’ team. We were just teenagers when we started sharing our experience, and it took a while – and a lot of other female athletes joining us – for the American public and government officials to realize this wasn’t an isolated issue affecting a handful of girls in New England, but rather, it was becoming prevalent.

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Today, there are many other lawsuits across the country defending female athletes, and it’s common to hear prominent athletes, media personalities and even presidential candidates talking about fairness in women’s sports. 

In fact, the issue has gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents us in our case, has asked the nation’s high court to hear two women’s sports cases this next term.

In the first case, ADF attorneys are working alongside the state of Idaho to defend two former collegiate track athletes urging the Supreme Court to uphold the state’s women’s sports law. 

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The two athletes, Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, ran track and cross-country at Idaho State University and – like us – are very familiar with the differences in strength, speed, and stamina between male and female competitors. They have both been forced to compete against a male athlete and have been pushed down in the rankings as a result.

In the second case, ADF attorneys and the West Virginia attorney general are defending another state’s women’s sports law. In B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education, a middle-school male athlete competing on a West Virginia girls’ track team displaced nearly 300 girls in three years in cross-country and track-and-field events. ADF attorneys are representing former college soccer player Lainey Armistead, who intervened in the lawsuit to defend the state’s law, which was enacted to ensure equal athletic opportunities for women.

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Our own case, which a federal appeals court recently put back in play, was argued on Aug. 16 in district court, where we’ll continue to seek fairness and equal opportunities for female athletes under Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for female students in education and athletics. 

We don’t want what happened to us to happen to any other female athletes. We were consistently deprived of honors, opportunities and placements because of the males competing against us.

For example, four times Chelsea was the fastest female in a women’s state championship race, and four times she watched that title, honor and recognition go to a male athlete instead. 

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Selina missed qualifying for the state championship 55-meter final and an opportunity to qualify for the New England Regional Championship by one spot in the 2018-19 season; the top two spots were taken by males. 

Alanna ran a second-place finish in the 200-meter at the New England Regional Championships but was dropped to third behind a male competitor. 

Ashley missed an opportunity to compete at the 2019 outdoor State Open Championship due to two male competitors.

No school should allow that to happen to girls. Yet it’s growing increasingly common for activists – and even the Biden-Harris administration – to try and erase differences between men and women by forcing women’s sports leagues to allow men to compete. We can’t let that happen on our watch.

The district court and the Supreme Court should listen to the stories of all of us women fighting for the future of the sports we love and restore our ability to compete and win.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM SELINA SOULE, CHELSEA MITCHELL, ALANNA SMITH AND ASHLEY NICOLETTI

Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith and Ashley Nicoletti are former Connecticut high school track-and-field athletes, and plaintiffs in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools.