HARTFORD, Conn. — Four Connecticut female athletes will appeal a federal district court ruling issued Sunday, April 25 that dismisses their legal challenge to a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference policy allowing biological males who identify as female to compete in girls’ athletic events.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the athletes in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools will continue to challenge the policy before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Since 2017, boys have consistently deprived Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti of honors and opportunities to compete at elite levels.
Mitchell, for example, would have won the 2019 state championship in the women’s 55-meter indoor track competition, but because two males took first and second place, she was denied the gold medal. Soule, Smith, and Nicoletti likewise have been denied medals and/or advancement opportunities.
“Our clients — like all female athletes — deserve access to fair competition; that means authentically equal opportunities to compete, achieve, and win. But competition is no longer fair when males are permitted to compete in girls’ sports,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb.
“Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls; that’s the reason we have girls’ sports in the first place. Unfortunately, this court has chosen to ignore our clients’ demoralizing experiences of losing to male runners. But these committed female athletes — and young women across the country — deserve better.”
Holcomb added: “Today, the conversation centers on Connecticut’s high school track and field program, but there’s something bigger at stake here: Girls and women deserve opportunities that are truly equal — without being sidelined or dominated by males choosing to join their sport.”
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