A transgender athlete is set to compete at a water polo national tournament, sparking outrage online.
Alicia Paans, 31, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, is on the roster for this year’s championship and also played last year, where her team won.
Paans is a member of the Wolverines’ club team, which is due to play its first match against Texas State University on May 3.
Ahead of the championship, Paans scored multiple times in the school’s two blowout matches, beating Virginia 17-5 and Washington 17-6.
In January, the Collegiate Water Polo Association announced that transgender athletes can compete in their preferred gender competition.
“The Collegiate Water Polo Association is committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable sports environment for all those who wish to participate,” the body said.
“This policy aims to provide guidelines for the participation of transgender athletes at the collegiate club level, ensuring fairness, respect, and equal opportunities for all.”
Athletes must provide a letter confirming their gender identity, as well as medical validation.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Her participation as a trans woman has caused a stir online.
“All women should boycott. On all teams. You can't have women's sports without women,” said one user.
Another added: “This makes me so angry! Why are we indulging this man’s fantasies to the detriment of young women?”
“Men's and Women's sports need to be defined by the Chromosomes/DNA and not by one's preferred gender identity/expression,” said a third.
Others were annoyed over the age difference between Paans and other college students.
“31 and still in college?” one user wrote on X.“Why are 31 (year) olds in college?” another added.
Last month, UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer urged sporting bodies to impose an outright ban on transgender athletes competing against women.
She said officials have a duty to give biological women a “sporting chance” because athletes born male have an “indisputable edge”.
Frazer called representatives from a number of sports, including cricket and football, to a meeting yesterday, to encourage them to bar transgender athletes from competing against biological women at elite levels.
She urged sporting governing bodies to take an “unambiguous position” on the issue.
