Men competing as women in various sports continues to present a growing problem in the United States, and another world champion female at...
Men competing as women in various sports continues to present a growing problem in the United States, and another world champion female athlete has spoken out about her concerns.
According to the UK Daily Mail, 45-year-old Cynthia Monteleone is a member of the Team USA Masters Track-and-Field squad. Masters events are international competitions for top-ranked athletes aged 25 and up.
Monteleone is a previous world champion in the 400 meter, and the Daily Mail reported she is “one of the US’ foremost Masters athletes.” That international pedigree makes her criticisms all the more eye-opening.
In an interview first obtained by Fox News, Monteleone discussed her feelings on men competing in women’s sports with Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Monteleone said her first encounter with this issue occurred at the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Málaga, Spain.
“Words can’t describe how I felt walking up to that starting line in Spain next to a biological male-bodied athlete,” Monteleone said, according to Fox.
Monteleone was referring to Yanelle Del Mar Zape, a male from Colombia who was competing in the women’s 400-meter race. Monteleone said she asked event officials why a “male-bodied athlete” was competing in her event.
“The European officials were actually very sympathetic, and they stopped the meet,” Monteleone said.
After discussing amongst themselves, the officials told Monteleone she needed to address her concerns with Team USA directly. When she did so after the race, Team USA Track-and-Field employees were not nearly as accommodating.
“They told me, ‘For your own safety you should probably keep your mouth shut,'” Monteleone said.
Monteleone told Blackburn she believes forcing women to compete against men and not talk about it causes “psychological trauma,” Fox reported.
“I don’t believe in keeping quiet about something that is so grossly unfair,” Monteleone said.
Possibly even more frustrating than her own struggles with men competing as women were the struggles of her daughter, Monteleone said. As her daughter tried to forge a track-and-field career of her own, she was forced to compete against a man in her first high school event.
“She had to line up for her very first race, after training all year, along a biological male,” Monteleone said.
She added that her daughter came in second after the male competitor “blew everybody away in the first 100 meters.”
“And you know what’s at stake are things that are important: prize money, scholarships, awards,” Monteleone said. “She deserved to win. She put in the work. But she had no chance because of the biological advantage of this male-bodied athlete.”
According to Fox, one of President Joe Biden’s first actions after his inauguration was to issue an executive order saying that “student-athletes should compete under the sex they identify as.”
In assessing blame for the deterioration of women’s sports, Monteleone pulled no punches.
“We’ve warned of this — this is the end of female sports,” she said. “Unfortunately the current administration is putting a nail in the coffin.”
The left has tried to silence women like Monteleone — women who believe the Democrats’ agenda is destroying the very “women’s rights” it claims to champion. But Monteleone has refused to stay silent, and she urged others to join her in the fight.
“I would encourage all females to stand up and think about that word brave,” she said. “Have that courage and focus on what’s at stake for the future. The bottom line is female-bodied athletes deserve their chance for accolades and awards and scholarships.”
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