There is an athlete competing this fall in women’s cross country on a division one team who once was on a male cross country team at the division one level with PB’s of 3:50 in the 1500 and 14:38 in the 5000m.
This is going to shake some things up and force the NCAA to examine how it will handle this new occurrence. I can’t see how this athlete won’t be the favorite at the NCAA championships.
I fear for women’s sports in the NCAA.
Editor's note: The athlete in question appears to be Montana athlete June Eastwood. She competed on the men's track team for 3 years as Jonathan Eastwood, amassing PBs 1:55.23, 3:50.19 and 14:38.80. We changed the title of the thread to reflect this and we've decided to require to registration to post on this topic.
We imagine it's not easy to transition and ask that you please be respectful of June Eastwood the person even if you, like us, vehemently don't respect her decision to compete in D1 sports as a woman.
The reality is the NCAA's rules on transgender participation are sorely lacking. In June the NCAA confirmed in writing to us the following, "The NCAA does not have a maximum testosterone level for its current policy. The current policy is being reviewed by our membership."
There also is no independent verification of T suppression. So as long as one had a note from a medical professional saying they had undergone one year of testosterone suppression - even if they were in fact flushing the pills down the toilet - that person would be eligible to compete. But one could take one birth control pill every six months and technically be meeting the rules. It's a travesty.