Four young Connecticut women who consistently had to race against boys in high school track meets, causing them to lose races they could have otherwise won, are suing the Connecticut Association of Schools, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), and their local school districts to challenge the policies that allowed the boys to compete against them.
The CIAC’s policy allowed two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions beginning in the 2017 track season. Those boys took 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and took more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher-level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.
The lawsuit from Chelsea Mitchell, 20, Selina Soule, 20, Ashley Nicoletti, 19, and Alanna Smith, 19, who all ran high school track, notes that the defendants claim that the plaintiffs (the girls) experienced no real harm. The lawsuit responds to this claim by contending that, “[The] CIAC’s policy forced all named Plaintiffs to compete against biological males, causing them to lose high-level opportunities to compete and/or medals or other accolades,” the lawsuit notes.
“At the end of the day, this is just about fairness,” star runner Mitchell told The New York Post. “This is about biology. I wanted to give voice to my story and help other girls out there so that they wouldn’t have to experience this.”
“Just two athletes took so many opportunities away from biological females,” Mitchell added. “Even though there were only two of them, they took 15 state championships away from other girls — and there were 85 girls that were directly impacted from them being in the races.”
In Mitchell’s first statewide competition, she competed against a boy who knocked her out of qualifying for the next round of competition. “It was just obvious to everyone there that they had a huge advantage. Everyone could see it,” Mitchell recalled. She lost two all-New England awards and four girls’ state championships as a consequence of competing against boys. “Having to lose four of them, time after time, and trying to pick yourself up and go back to the starting line again and again was really hard because you knew each time that there was no hope to win,” she remembered.
Mitchell and the other girls had to compete regularly against two boys who regularly blew past girls in track competitions: Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller.
Cromwell's Andraya Yearwood is a state champion in the 100 dash. Ran 12.66 to win in 1st appearance at Class M Championships. #cttrack pic.twitter.com/8RELfAEeLF
— Courant HS Sports (@CTVarsity) May 30, 2017
“I think it’s unfair to the girls who work really hard to do well and qualify for Opens and New Englands, Soule told the Hartford Courant in 2018. “These girls, they’re just coming in and beating everyone. I have no problem with them wanting to be a girl.”
“We were the first girls to speak out about this issue, but now there are so many more girls speaking out about their own experiences and standing up with us,” Mitchell concluded. “The more of us there are, the easier it gets.”