4 Heroes in Women’s Sports Shine as Dept of Ed Attempts Title IX Power Grab
The extreme highs and lows of the Paris Olympics are in the rearview mirror. You may have loved it – or hated it. Either way, it gave us a lot to talk about.
The disgusting opening ceremony will always be remembered for its caustic attack on 2.9 billion Christians, denigrating Jesus’ Last Supper with a hateful depiction using drag queens.
Then, two men (with XY chromosomes) won gold in women’s boxing. Olympic leadership apparently isn’t super concerned about the biology thing – and these men easily beat the women down. It smacked of domestic violence more than Olympic competition and illustrated vividly the folly of biological men in women’s sports – and spaces.
In support of men’s access to women’s athletics, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s leftist Department of Education championed a rewrite of Title IX. That law initially provided, among other things, protection and inclusion of women’s athletics in American society. The new bid from the DOE would change the terminology in Title IX to make the word “sex” include gender identity. In practical terms, you can say you’re a girl – and still have man parts – and in the government’s eyes, you are a woman. Also, there were add-ons like this one explained in a Heritage Foundation letter, “The rule defines sexual harassment so broadly that it will require K-12 officials to police and punish the use of “incorrect” pronouns and/or “misgendering” of both students and teachers, thereby creating a de-facto speech code that violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on compelled speech.”1
Some days, it just hurts my head.
The situation is quite fluid, with new rulings from various courts still pending, but 26 states have blocked the Biden-Harris measure. In a recent 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, the justices upheld these temporary injunctions in 10 states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho, and Louisiana, as well as Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia. For now, these states will continue to protect women’s sports and women-only spaces. It’s time the rest of our states join the fight!
For this week’s podcast, we caught up with Idaho State Representative Barbara Ehardt to discuss the very latest details of the litigation in response to Biden-Harris’ Title IX revamp and what it means for girls who compete. She is a champion of women’s sports as a former athlete and coach.
As we consider the future of women’s sports, we also wanted to celebrate several heroic women athletes who did what seemed impossible and became aspirational figures to America’s young sports-minded girls.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone – Olympic Inspiration
The summer Olympic games weren’t all about gender and outrageousness – there were also high points. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was definitely one of them.
She’s the reigning female world champion for the US in the women’s 400m hurdles. It wasn’t always that way, though. As a teen, Sydney ran in the 2019 Olympics – and didn’t medal. That failure spurred the hard-working, determined athlete to strive even more. In her book Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith, Sydney shares her struggle with anxiety, fears, and other challenges during her formative years.
After that first unsuccessful bid for Olympic glory, she went on to win three gold medals. She crushed her own world record six times – most recently, in Paris, just days ago. Besides her amazing commitment, grit, and athleticism, faith is her leading characteristic. In fact, she puts competition beneath her commitment to God.
“Let me start off by saying what an honor it is to be able to represent not only my country but also the kingdom of God,” she said. “What I have in Christ is far greater than what I have or don’t have in life. I pray my journey may be a clear depiction of submission and obedience to God. Even when it doesn’t make sense, even when it doesn’t seem possible, He will make a way out of no way. Not for my own gratification but for His glory.”
Bethany Hamilton – Overcoming Grit
When Bethany Meilani Hamilton was barely a teen – she loved surfing.
She had begun competing and was on the rise when she suffered a tiger shark attack and lost her left arm. Her story was covered on national newscasts and dramatized in the movie Soul Surfer, which showed her faith, unquenchable spirit, and grit in the face of tragedy.
For many reasons, you need two arms to surf. That didn’t stop young Bethany, though. She began the painful and challenging struggle to learn a new way to surf. She determined that no matter what, she would return to competition.
Since then, she has been competing, even beating a six-time world champion at a World Surfing League event. Bethany and her husband, Adam, took part in Season 25 of The Amazing Race– wowing fellow competitors with her athleticism and fearlessness despite her disability. She now is an in-demand speaker, author, and a mom of three.
“If the fear of failure wins, we may never surprise ourselves,” she said. “I could have been so scared of sharks, of being in the ocean, and of surfing. I could have let my biggest fear of all – that I wouldn’t be able to surf again – stop me in my tracks.” 2
The Tigerbelles – Achievement in Adversity
In the middle of the Jim Crow years in the South, the Tigerbelles made their mark on US sports – and the world. This group of female track athletes, comprised of Tennessee State students, were coached by the legendary Ed Temple throughout his 44 years with that program.
Being part of the Tigerbelles in the early days of Temple’s program was a bare-bones proposition. He earned just $150 a month as he coached the girls’ team with a budget of just $300 per month. They sometimes practiced at Vanderbilt University because it had an entire track – which State lacked. The girls faced hateful discrimination, often unable to use a restroom on the road – according to one member of the team, they brought jars to substitute. They couldn’t eat at most restaurants because they were deemed “white-only” and even almost missed a meet in Texas when the driver refused to pick them up. It was a harsh time in the US, but they stayed true to their hard work and goals.
Money and discrimination couldn’t stop the force of Temple’s will and the Tigerbelles’ determination. His style of discipline and rigor led to impressive Olympic victories. Most often spoken of is the team that represented the US in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. That included the legendary Wilma Rudolph, who became the first woman to claim three gold medals, along with Mae Faggs, Lucinda Williams, Isabelle Daniels, Margaret Matthews, and Willye White.
By the end of his career, Temple led the Tigerbelles to 34 national titles, trained 40 Olympians, and brought home 23 medals – 16 gold, 6 silver, and 4 bronze.3
Lucinda Williams recalls the passage of Title IX, “That’s one of the things that kept us going, kept us wanting to do well so that others could look back and say, ‘They did it, then I can do it too,’ a young girl can say that, and so I believe that we were trailblazers to set the stage for others to come.” 4
Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle – Courageous Stamina
If the movie streaming on Disney+ is accurate, and it seems at least this part of the story is, Trudy learned to swim at the age of nine, around 1915, on her own, in the deep water of the Shrewsbury River, her dad safeguarding her with a clothesline tied around her waist. Women rarely participated in competitive swimming at that time. So, young Trudy got involved with the Women’s Swimming Association. That organization helped raise awareness of women’s swimming and pushed for women’s inclusion in competition.
As opportunities grew, teenaged Trudy began to win awards, surprising those who didn’t expect her to pose a threat as a self-taught amateur. Eventually, her skill and tenacity earned her a spot on the Olympic team at the 1924 games in Paris. Though she medaled (bronze) in the 400-meter freestyle and took home gold with her team in the 4 x 100 freestyle relay – she was discouraged by the experience.
Trudy then set her sights on one of the world’s most harrowing and dangerous swimming challenges – the 21-mile treacherous English Channel. If you haven’t seen the excellent movie about her, Young Woman and the Sea, get ready for spoilers, or skip this part to preserve your movie night.
Through the years, the Channel has claimed at least ten swimmer’s lives who succumbed to either cramps, strong currents, hypothermia, or drowning. Trudy made two attempts – the first thwarted by her own coach, who laced her beef broth with drugs, which made her lethargic and unable to continue. The second time, she triumphed, becoming the first woman to make it all the way from France to the shores of England. She was celebrated in New York when two million gathered for the largest parade for any athlete in that city’s history.
“To me, the sea is like a person, like a child that I’ve known a long time,” Trudy said. “It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea, I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.”
The history of women’s sports is rich and storied. Pioneers like Trudy Ederle persevered when women had no prominent place in sports. Others overcame adversity – like the Tigerbelles and Bethany Hamilton, and most recently, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone set a beautiful example of grace and strength in representing our nation to the world.
Biden-Harris’ Attack on Women’s Sports
So, what comes next?
Should Harris claim the White House, her stances with Biden, suggest that she will be an enemy of women’s sports and women’s spaces. With her commitment to the transgender lobby over the rights of American women, what can you expect for your girls who long to compete? If Harris gets her way:
Will your young soccer star not make the cut because her spot on the team was claimed by a transgender-identified biological male?
And what about the locker room? What if your sweet young girl gets her first real look at male anatomy because a boy is free to share that space since he claims gender confusion.
Could your daughter face the loss of a title and a scholarship because she must compete with a dude who says he’s a girl?
We’ve interviewed Riley Gaines about her experiences in the locker room and pool with male swimmer Lia Thomas. It’s completely unfair – and rolls back women’s rights a good 40 years.
Even one of the most successful women of tennis, Serena Williams (23 Grand Slam wins, and much, much more), who, as far as we know, isn’t conservative in any way, stated the truth about competing with a champion on the men’s circuit a decade ago during an interview with David Letterman. Williams explained, “… men’s tennis and women’s tennis are completely almost two separate sports … If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0-6-0 in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes.” She continued, “It’s a completely different sport. The men are a lot faster … they serve harder … they hit harder. It’s just a different game, and I love to play women’s tennis.” 5
She might be canceled in today’s volatile online culture; however, things were different back then.
We Must Win
America was built on achievement, invention, hard work, determination – and the qualities many of us learned as young athletes. For our daughters and future granddaughters, we must get involved to help President Trump win. Harris has been clear that her priorities are closely tied to a woke agenda – and whatever she says on the campaign trail – judge both candidates by their actions in office. Then, volunteer, encourage your friends to engage – and be sure to vote. So much is at stake.
The finish line is ahead – push hard with all you’ve got – for the win!
1 heritagefoundation.org Title IX
3 library.nashville.org Tennessee State Tigerbelles
4 youtube.com Tigerbelles: The Untold Story of the Fastest Women on Earth
5 dailycaller.com Serena Williams
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