Female Runner Recounts Experience Competing Against Transgender. "Devastating."
A high school girl’s track runner, Chelsea Mitchell, spoke out against the increasing tendency to allow biological men to compete against women in high school sports. Mitchell said that allowing transgender women (i.e., men who think they are women) to compete against women has been very harmful to both self-esteem and future college sports possibilities.
At one point, Mitchell was called the “fastest girl in Connecticut.” In her op-ed for USA Today, she detailed why she along with three other high school women athletes opted to sue the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), the body that allowed transgender students to compete according to gender identity instead of biological sex, in 2020. Beginning in 2017, when the CIAC changed the definition of sex, biological males have ruled the high school track and field scene in Connecticut – a prime example of an unjust patriarchy that is perpetrated by progressive ideology.
Mitchell talked about her inner struggles when her competitions were administered unfairly. While she had put in much hard work and effort into her sport, she recalls not feeling confident despite her skill. Before races, thoughts that she “might not be enough, simply because there's a transgender runner on the line with an enormous physical advantage” would flood her brain.
As testament to her skill, Mitchell still gave the biological males a run for their money. However, a victory was not a common occurrence for her. She recounts how she’s lost “four women's state championship titles, two all-New England awards, and numerous other spots on the podium to transgender runners.” Despite being the “fastest girl in Connecticut,” she took third place in the 55 meter race in 2019, ‘losing’ to two biological males. “With every loss, it gets harder and harder to try again,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell talked about the emotional and psychological turmoil she has experienced. She called losing to men who compete as women “devastating.”
"It tells me that I'm not good enough; that my body isn't good enough; and that no matter how hard I work, I am unlikely to succeed, because I'm a woman."
Because of CIAC’s and other organizations policies allowing men to compete against women, many stellar female athletes have been denied the opportunity to fairly compete leading to people like Mitchell being denied the spotlight for college scholarship and opportunities. Mitchell rightly shed light on the fact that denying any sort of objectivity to womanhood ends in the degradation of women.
"I'll never know how my own college recruitment was impacted by losing those four state championship titles. When colleges looked at my record, they didn't see the fastest girl in Connecticut. They saw a second- or third-place runner."
Mitchell has personally experienced how transgenderism is communicating the message that women are simply second-rate males with no unique things to offer to humanity.
A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit brought by Mitchell and her colleagues. The female athletes are currently represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom. The ADF said in a statement:
"[Biological men] have taken 15 women's state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone."
The girls and the ADF are emphatic that the case will be appealed.
Mitchell D. Cochran is a family life educator, a financial coach, and a board certified biblical counselor. He is the cofounder of Hope Initiative Consulting, LLC. and is currently attending Calvary University for his M.A. in biblical counseling. Mitchell is active in local politics in Lubbock, TX, where he lives with his wife, Katherine.
