Appearing at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, NCAA president Charlie Baker told federal lawmakers that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes he is aware of who currently compete in collegiate athletics.
“How many athletes are there in the U.S. in NCAA schools?” Illinois senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, asked Baker during the hearing on federal regulations around sports gambling, as reported by The Hill.
“Five hundred and ten thousand,” said Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts who has led the NCAA, which boasts more than 1,000 member colleges and universities, since 2023.
“How many transgender athletes are you aware of?” Durbin asked.
“Less than 10,” Baker said. He did not say whether that number includes transgender men, according to Brooke Migdon of The Hill.
Two transgender college athletes in particular — former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and San Jose State University volleyball player Blaire Fleming — have become the focus of national political debate.
Earlier on Tuesday, Republican senators John Kennedy of Louisiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri grilled Baker over the NCAA’s inclusion of transgender female athletes, which the senators argued undermines the organization’s promise of ensuring fairness in college sports.
Baker said it is “debatable” whether transgender women will “always” have a physical advantage over cisgender, or non-transgender, women.
“You think it’s debatable? You don’t think a biological male has an advantage — every time — competing against a biological female?” Kennedy asked.
“Defined the way you defined it, I would agree with you,” Baker said.
As reported by The Hill's Migdon, a recent cross-sectional study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that transgender women who completed more than one year of hormone replacement therapy performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lower-body strength and lung functioning.
Trans women’s bone density, which is linked to muscle strength, was found to be equivalent to that of cisgender women, and there were no meaningful differences in levels of hemoglobin, which facilitates oxygen delivery to muscles and is related to greater aerobic performance.
An earlier study, also published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that transgender women who went through male puberty retained an athletic edge after one year of hormone therapy. The study’s lead author has cautioned against using the results to categorically ban transgender athletes from competitive sports.
Baker on Tuesday said the NCAA, which has faced mounting pressure from Republicans and conservative organizations to ban transgender athletes from competing in college sports, would not adopt such a policy because federal courts have consistently sided with participation.
Since 2020, 25 states have passed laws prohibiting transgender children and teens from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity. The majority of bans also affect participation in college sports. Per Migdon's reporting, federal judges have temporarily blocked laws from taking effect in Arizona, Utah, West Virginia and Idaho, the latter two of which have asked the Supreme Court to review their cases. A Montana judge in 2022 permanently barred the state from enforcing its 2021 prohibition on transgender athletes competing in college sports.
Prior to Baker's arrival at the NCAA, the association announced in 2022 that transgender participation in each sport will depend on guidelines set by the sport’s national or international governing body.
“We’re a national governing body, and we follow federal law,” Baker said, adding that he’d be open to working with Congress to create a “federal standard” for eligibility.
“Part of our challenge is dealing with a very murky set of court decisions at the state and federal level around this issue, which creates a certain lack of clarity around our policy because our policy ultimately needs to comply with federal policy."
