US election – Donald Trump’s agitation infects college sports

The volleyball players from San José State University actually started the season well. The Spartans – as the college team from the city south of San Francisco is called – won their first nine games. After that, however, the season got out of hand. At the end of September, the Boise State University team from Idaho did not play against the Spartans. Other teams followed that gave up their games against San José without a fight. In October, volleyball players from the University of Wyoming, Utah State University and the University of Nevada joined us.

The reason for the defeats without a fight are reports that a trans woman is supposed to play at San José State. The University of San José has not yet publicly confirmed that a trans person is part of the volleyball team. Some US media are reporting on a female player, but the New York Times wrote last week that they could neither verify the identity of the player nor whether there was a trans woman on the team. Nevertheless, Sia Liilii, the captain of the University of Nevada volleyball team, announced in the Reno Gazette Journal a week ago after her no-contest: “Women have fought so hard to get to the point where we are now we are allowed to play Division 1 (the highest division at the college, editor’s note) volleyball. It’s not fair that a biological man is now allowed to play a role in this.”

For the Republicans, the games in the Mountain West Conference are a welcome opportunity to give further emphasis to their transphobic election campaign. According to TV station ABC, Donald Trump’s campaign team has invested $21 million in anti-trans and anti-queer TV ads since the beginning of October, about a third of its total TV advertising budget. In keeping with party strategy, the Republican governors of Idaho and Wyoming declared their support for the non-playing college teams immediately after the game cancellations. And Trump also commented on the volleyball team at San José State University in the middle of last month. At a meeting with citizens, the 78-year-old referred to a video on social networks that shows a San Diego State University player being hit in the upper body by the ball after an attack by a San José player and then afterwards briefly falls to the ground.

USA election

Stephanie Schoell

The elections on November 5, 2024 are one of the most important directional decisions of this time for US citizens and the rest of the world. »nd« reports on the mood and problems in the country, on candidates and their visions. All texts about the US election can be found here.

»I’ve never seen a ball hit so hard. The ball hit the girl in the head. “People have been seriously injured in volleyball because women play against men,” Trump said at the event, which was broadcast on Fox News, and declared that if he were re-elected, he would ban trans athletes from women’s teams. Following Trump’s statements, San Diego State University issued a statement saying that their player was hit in the shoulder rather than in the face in the game against the Spartans. In addition, the player was not injured and did not miss a rally. According to the university, the repeated requests for correction were not heeded by either Trump or Fox News.

Equality California, one of the large non-profit organizations that advocates for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in the USA, has also taken a clear stance on the discussion about the team from San José. Tony Hoang, the organization’s executive director, said: “It must be made clear that this is not really about sports, but rather a coordinated nationwide attack against the LGBTQ+ community, led by extreme conservative and right-wing politicians. Less than two percent of all NCAA athletes identify as trans or nonbinary, and the NCAA already has sufficient rules in place to ensure fairness.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the association that organizes sports competitions between universities in the USA. When it comes to trans participation, NCAA rules vary from sport to sport. In volleyball, trans athletes must prove that they have taken the “necessary steps toward gender reassignment.” In addition, the trans players are not allowed to exceed a certain testosterone level. Since all San Jose State University players are eligible to play, there appear to be no inconsistencies with college rules. In fact, the player named by US media as the possible trans athlete is already in her third year with the team. There are no known violations of the rules in recent years either. In the previous two seasons, the teams from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada had also competed against San Jose without objections.

The fact that the discussion only became so big this season and shortly before the US election is primarily due to a player from the Spartans’ ranks. San Jose girls volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit against the NCAA on Sept. 23. In it, several female athletes, led by former professional swimmer and transphobic activist Riley Gaines, claim that their right to equality has been limited by the participation of trans athletes in women’s competitions. The plaintiffs cite the so-called Title IX law, which stipulates that publicly funded educational institutions in the USA may not discriminate against anyone based on gender.

For Slusser and her fellow plaintiffs, it is clear that the participation of trans athletes in women’s competitions deprived them of a fair chance. Her teammate can hit the ball much harder than any player she has ever played against, which is why she is afraid of being injured by the force of the hit, Slusser said in an interview with Fox News, in which she also called for her teammate to be taken out of the game to throw team. A spokeswoman for San José State University then explained that there had been no unusual injuries after rallies involving the teammate in question during training or in a game, both in the current and in previous seasons.

In the seven games at San José State University that were still able to take place since Slusser’s lawsuit became known, the co-captain and the teammate she was hostile to continued to be on the field together. Thanks to the four straight wins in the Mountain West Conference, the Spartans now have a record of 10:3. The team can dream of its first appearance in the NCAA national championship tournament in 23 years. According to an interview with San José’s volleyball coach Todd Kress in the Los Angeles Times, the joy about this is still limited: “There are outside forces that are trying to divide our team, our university, our league and our sport. I know that our players are suffering a lot from this.” The playoffs in the Mountain West Conference are scheduled for the end of November. It is possible that San Jose State will then make it into the NCAA tournament without a fight.

Donald Trump has now moved on to the next sport. On Saturday, the ex-president used one of his last campaign appearances in Salem, Virginia, to bring the swimming team from nearby Roanoke College onto the stage. A year ago, the swimmers resisted including a trans woman on their team who had previously been part of the men’s team. The women had successfully fought against the “transgender fanatics in this country,” Trump said to the cheering crowd and continued: “We will keep men out of women’s sports, I promise you that.”

Subscribe to the “nd”

Being left is complicated.
We keep track!

With our digital promotional subscription you can read all issues of »nd« digitally (nd.App or nd.Epaper) for little money at home or on the go.
Subscribe now!