June 20, 2024
As the NCAA Debates New Rules, Trans Athletes Are Left Out of the Conversation
By Finn Cooley
At least 24 states have restricted transgender athletes’ participation in sports, and these policymaking decisions often lack input from those most affected.
(Olivier Douliery / Getty)
Water polo was part of Emmett Lockwood’s life early on. “I began in elementary school,” he told The Nation. “Going into fifth grade, I was on a soccer team—quite literally the worst player on the worst team in the league. I was talking to my parents that summer and realized I needed to be in a sport that was in the pool.”
A love for water polo’s technical plays and warm community would stick with Lockwood in the coming decade. “It was a major part of when I was looking for colleges, making sure there was a club team, an intramural team, some sort of competitive team,” Lockwood says. “I knew going into college, that just knowing both where I was as a swimmer, but also knowing that I was, like transitioning in my last year of high school, that I didn’t want to go down the NCAA recruitment route. And as an athlete with disabilities, that wouldn’t be the most sustainable route for myself.”
