The debate over transgender participation in women’s sports has intensified in recent years, but only a handful of elite female athletes have publicly taken a clear position. WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham recently became one of the most outspoken advocates for preserving women’s sports as female-only, calling for the protection of young girls in athletic competition. Her remarks have drawn attention to the fact that many of the world’s most influential sportswomen have either declined to weigh in or have offered carefully measured responses.
Cunningham’s stance stands in contrast to several high-profile peers. Simone Biles, widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, became one of the highest-profile female athletes to address the issue in June 2025 during a public exchange with former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines on social media. Biles criticized Gaines for commenting on a Minnesota high school softball championship team that included a male player, writing that Gaines was “truly sick.” Biles later argued that sports organizations should find ways to include transgender athletes rather than exclude them. After receiving backlash, Biles apologized for her personal attacks but did not retract her support for inclusion. In subsequent media appearances, she reaffirmed that she supports inclusion while acknowledging the complexity of fairness in sports.
Other prominent athletes have remained notably quiet. Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson has frequently spoken about equality, diversity, and inclusion but has not made any public statement on transgender participation in women’s sports. There is no record of Wilson being directly asked about the issue by a reporter or podcast host. Tennis legend Serena Williams, often cited as the greatest female player of all time, has never definitively stated a position on male participation in women’s sports. However, a 2013 interview on the David Letterman show has been used by advocates of the female-only sports cause. In that conversation, Williams stated that if she played top male player Andy Murray, she would lose “6-0, 6-0 in five to six minutes,” describing men’s and women’s tennis as “almost two separate sports.” Although those remarks were about competition between the sexes rather than policy, they have become a touchstone in the fairness debate.
Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky has also avoided taking a side, despite swimming being at the center of the national conversation following the Lia Thomas controversy at the NCAA level. In a June 2024 profile by The New York Times, Ledecky was directly asked about the Title IX lawsuit related to Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA Championships. She declined to take a position, stating she “preferred not to weigh in.” Ledecky added that she considers herself lucky to live in a country where issues can be debated and emphasized learning from different perspectives. When pressed, she said she does not want to get into politics and prefers to focus on swimming.
Tennis star Coco Gauff, a top-five player, has publicly supported LGBTQ communities and participated in Pride-related messaging for years, but she has not specifically addressed transgender participation in women’s sports. Riley Gaines recently called on Gauff via social media to answer whether women’s sports should be exclusive to women, but Gauff has not responded. WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark is one of the few athletes who has been directly asked. In a 2024 interview with Time magazine after being named Athlete of the Year, Clark was asked about transgender participation amid the national debate. She responded by saying that “everybody should have the same rights” and that transgender people “deserve the same rights and should be treated with the same respect as anybody else.” However, she did not directly answer whether biological males should be permitted to compete in women’s sports, a response that disappointed some advocates of female-only competition.
The reluctance of many top female athletes to take a clear position has frustrated those who argue that the debate is about fairness, safety, and the integrity of women’s sports. Former U.S. women’s national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe has been a vocal supporter of transgender inclusion, calling efforts to bar transgender athletes an “attack on women in society.” Cunningham’s outspokenness has reignited calls for more athletes to speak up, particularly those with the largest platforms. As the issue continues to be debated in legislatures, courts, and sports governing bodies, the silence of many leading sportswomen remains a notable factor in the ongoing conversation about the future of women’s athletics.
