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New York Post
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Post
I was a track champion — until the NCAA replaced me with a man
On Sunday, I outed myself: I am Track Athlete A in a major lawsuit, Gaines v. NCAA, that aims to win justice for women in college sports. For two years, I've lived in the shadows, watching my records, my opportunities, my dignity and my voice stripped away — not by happenstance, but by design, as colleges applied rules allowing male athletes into women's sports. My university, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and my own coaches applauded as a man competed on our women's team, erased my records and those of other women, and was ushered into our locker room. Advertisement 5 Caroline Hill, a sprinter on the women's track team at Rochester Institute of Technology competing in a race. @carolineblythehill/Instagram He didn't just steal medals — he stole the experiences we female athletes were promised: a safe and supportive environment, privacy, unity and leaders we could trust. I felt small. Erased. Federal law was supposed to protect young women like me. Instead, Title IX was ignored. Advertisement I'm speaking now because no other girl should be forced to feel insignificant just to make room for a man. I've been running track since I was 11 years old. The joy of running and the reward of perseverance through adversity are deeply personal to me. Advertisement 5 NCAA President Charlie Baker speaks during the organization's Division I Business Session at their annual convention, Jan. 15, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. AP I'm hard of hearing, so there's a lot about my sport I can't take for granted — such as hearing my coaches' and teammates' voices during practice, or the starter's commands at the line. At meets without a microphone, I sometimes missed the critical 'Set!' command. I'd have to throw my hand in the air to stop the race, drawing confused looks — and once, in a championship meet, a wave of boos from the crowd that nearly brought me to tears. Advertisement But I kept going. I learned to adapt, to fight through setbacks, and I earned my place through grit and determination. 5 Caroline Hill holding her Rochester Institute of Technology diploma. @carolineblythehill/Instagram By my sophomore year at RIT, I was a team captain and the school record-holder in the 60-, 200- and 300-meter dash. But what I never expected — what I could not overcome — was lining up next to someone with the unmistakable physical advantages of a male body. No amount of training prepared me for that. Everything changed my junior year when Sadie Schreiner, a male athlete who identifies as a woman, joined our women's track team. At his very first NCAA meet competing in the women's category, Schreiner effortlessly broke both my 200-meter and 300-meter records. Advertisement 5 Sadie Schreiner, C, finishes 3rd in the finals of the 200m race at the 2024 NCAA DIII outdoor track and field championships on May 25, 2024, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Washington Post via Getty Images I never imagined I could be made to feel so worthless. Later during that season, Jacqueline Nicholson, RIT's executive director of athletics, met with the team to tell us that this man had no physical advantage over us, that the university supported him, and that we should too. That's how I learned no one in charge was going to stick up for me, or any other woman on my team. Advertisement I felt humiliated to compete for a school so willing to discard women's rights, wearing its jersey as if I silently endorsed my own violation. But worst of all was how it drove a wedge through the heart and soul of our squad, robbing us of the intangible experiences and deep camaraderie that are built within a team of women. 5 Sadie Schreiner wears a transgender flag in her hair on the awards stand after finishing 3rd in the finals of the 200m race at the 2024 NCAA DIII outdoor track and field championships on May 25, 2024, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Washington Post via Getty Images When NCAA President Charlie Baker announced in February that the association would comply with President Donald Trump's executive order banning male athletes from women's sports, I felt hope. Advertisement But RIT communicated no changes — and Schreiner kept competing. While he was no longer earning points for RIT at women's track meets, he was instead running unattached — still beating women, just without the school's name next to his. Despite the headlines about the NCAA's policy changes, Schreiner continued attending our practices, using our women's locker room and receiving workouts and coaching attention meant to benefit and develop our women's team. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Advertisement Would this betrayal never end? I graduated in May, and my college sports career is over. But it was permanently damaged by the opportunities I lost, the experiences I earned and can never get back. I joined Riley Gaines' lawsuit anonymously, fearing retaliation at RIT and elsewhere. Yet with distance from campus, I have gained clarity and strength. I never want another woman to go through what my team was forced to endure in plain sight. For violating the federal rights of women, and for abandoning us so openly, the NCAA must pay a price so high that no school or organization will ever dare to do such a thing again. We need the law, and the consequences for breaking it, to be certain and clear. I deserve my records back, and I want the NCAA held accountable for taking them — and so much else — from me. Caroline Hill is a former sprinter and captain for the Rochester Institute of Technology.
New York Post
18-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Transgender runner sues Princeton for keeping her out of women's race
Transgender runner Sadie Schreiner is suing Princeton University after the school allegedly excluded the athlete from a May 3 women's race. Schreiner's lawsuit claimed the athlete attempted to participate in the women's 200-meter sprint at the Larry Ellis Invitational as one of the 141 participants unattached to a university or club. The suit alleges officials told Schreiner the athlete could not participate 15 minutes before the race began. Advertisement 'I do not want to assume, but you are transgender,' a Princeton official allegedly told Schreiner, per the complaint. 'The actions of the two Princeton officials were in blatant and willful disregard of Sadie's rights based on Sadie's rights as a transgender woman under controlling New Jersey law, thereby causing Sadie Shreiner to foreseeable emotional and physical harm,' the lawsuit argued. Schreiner alleges the university violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, which designates 'gender identity or expression' as a protected status. Fox News Digital has reached out to Princeton University for a response. Advertisement Schreiner previously competed for Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) women's track and field team and gained national notoriety for dominating female opponents and frequent social media videos boasting about it as an openly transgender competitor. However, Schreiner was ruled ineligible to compete for RIT after the NCAA revised its gender eligibility policy Feb. 6, one day after President Donald Trump signed the 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' executive order on Feb. 5. 3 Sadie Schreiner races to qualify in the 400m race at the 2024 NCAA DIII outdoor track and field championships The Washington Post via Getty Im RIT provided a statement to Fox News Digital confirming this on Feb. 12. Advertisement 'We continue to follow the NCAA participation policy for transgender student-athletes following the Trump administration's executive order. Sadie is not participating in the next meet,' the statement said. Schreiner then competed at the USA Track & Field Open Masters Championships on March 1. There, Schreiner competed in the women's 400-meter dash and 200-meter dash, taking first place in both events. Schreiner won the 400-meter dash by default, as the other participants in the event, Anna Vidolova and Amaris Hiatt, had no recorded times and were listed as DNS (did not start). Advertisement 3 Sadie Schreiner wears a transgender flag in her hair on the awards stand after finishing 3rd in the finals of the 200m race at the 2024 NCAA DIII outdoor track and field championships. The Washington Post via Getty Im In the 200-meter dash, Schreiner defeated 14-year-old runner-up Zwange Edwards, 16-year-old third-place finisher Zariah Hargrove, 15-year-old Leah Walker and 18-year-old Ainsley Rausch. That event also had multiple participants listed as DNS, including 18-year-old Jordan Carr, 46-year-old Amanda Taylor, Vidolova again and 16-year-old Paula Damiens. However, weeks after that, Schreiner posted an Instagram video claiming to have likely competed in Schreiner's last organized track meet in the U.S. after a USATF event in Maine. 'I very likely just ran what will be my last meet in the United States,' Schreiner said, later adding, 'I will find a way to keep competing, but I doubt that will be in the United States.' Schreiner said USATF changed its policy on transgender eligibility from the one used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which allows biological males to compete in the women's category, to the one used by World Athletics, which bans any athlete who has undergone male puberty from competing as a woman. The USATF's official transgender eligibility policy does now reference the World Athletics guidelines on its official webpage. It previously referenced the IOCs policy, as seen in an archive via Wayback Machine. 3 Sadie Schreiner puts a transgender flag in her hair. The Washington Post via Getty Im Schreiner has been a controversial figure in women's track and field in the past year, especially after an appearance at the 2024 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in May. Earlier that month, Schreiner competed at the Liberty League Championship and won both the women's 200- and 400-meter, breaking the 400-meter record in the process. Schreiner would have finished last by more than two seconds in the men's competition. Advertisement In late January, Schreiner bragged after winning an event against female opponents. 'Not the race I was looking for at all this week, my spikes nearly fell off on the turn and with a poor start my time wasn't nearly what I wanted,' the runner wrote in an Instagram post. 'The good news is that the season just started, and I'm going to leave everything on the track at nationals,' Schreiner added with a transgender pride flag emoji. Advertisement On Jan. 17, Schreiner took first place in the 200- and 400-meter dashes at the Brockport Friday Night Rust Buster, taking top spots over two female seniors. In the 200-meter dash, Schreiner beat RIT teammate Caroline Hill by 1.5 seconds and took first place in the 400-meter dash from Brockport's Marissa Wise by nearly 3.5 seconds. Schreiner's results achieved automatic qualification for the All-Atlantic Regional Track and Field Championships. On Jan. 24, Schreiner took first place in the 200-meter dash at the RIT Friday Meet, beating out Liberty League junior Lexi Rodriguez of Brockport with an even faster time. On Jan. 30, Schreiner took first place in the 200- and 400-meter dashes against Liberty League opponents. Schreiner also spoke out against states and colleges that were not offering the trans athlete a full scholarship when Schreiner wanted to transfer in December. The athlete blamed laws in 25 states that prohibit trans athletes from competing with girls and women. Advertisement 'Among all the hurdles transfers usually have, there is an extra layer because it is trans, 50% of the country banned me from participating and that meant I couldn't attend any of those colleges even if they reached out to me with a full ride,' Schreiner said. 'It also became clear that states that did, no matter how adamant the coaches were to have me on their teams, the college administrations would usually stop them from allowing me to participate.'
Boston Globe
21-02-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
JWU's wrestling coach Lonnie Morris goes to the mat for his powerhouse team
They've also made him a bit of a celebrity on campus and around town. A graduate of Rhode Island College who now lives with his family in Barrington, Morris draws on his personal experience as an all-American wrestler. As a coach and the assistant athletic director at JWU, Morris says he aims to lead by example — and 'with love.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Q: What made you start a wrestling program at Johnson & Wales? Advertisement Morris: I was coaching high school wrestling. [It] was a pretty historic program, still very good, Coventry High School. They had won the state 17 years in a row, and I was helping out there, and then I went to another school, and I just wanted my own thing. I didn't want to play second fiddle, and I just wanted to start something from scratch. And they were starting wrestling at Johnson & Wales, and a longtime friend reached out to me and said this might be something you would be interested in. And we started with four kids, and next thing you know, we just got it rolling. And we really haven't looked back. How do you inspire your wrestlers? I try to live the right way; some people call it a championship lifestyle. I'm not a big drinker, I don't smoke. I try to be a good person. I try to live by the Golden Rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. I don't rule by fear. I rule by love. There's two ways to run a program. You can rule by fear, or you can rule by love. I choose love. I think it lasts longer. I think my guys know I love them, and I care about them. To inspire them, I share stories from some of the alumni that have come through. And like I tell everyone, there are kids that come from struggle, there are kids that come from privilege. And that's the best part of wrestling — you can benefit from learning from each other. Advertisement Can you talk about the upcoming NCAA DIII championships taking place in Providence in March? It's been a bucket list item of mine. It hasn't been back in New England since 1993. I actually wrestled in it. It was at the Coast Guard Academy. It was my junior year in college. It's just embarrassing that we haven't had it back in New England. Part of the reason no one wants to take it on is because it's a lot of work. But in the end, the Midwest kids deserve to come to the East Coast to see the ocean and get to see New York City, or Boston, or Providence. And our kids get to wrestle in front of their moms and dads. This year, it's right here in our backyard. So that'll be awesome for the JWU kids. I think this year's team has a chance to do something that no JWU team has ever done and have a chance to really win it, and doing it at home would be pretty special, so time will tell. Speaking of the Ocean State, you're a member of the New England Wrestling Association, you were inducted into the RIC Hall of Fame, the Rhode Island Wrestling Hall of Fame, and you're also an National Wresting Coaches Association hall of famer. How does it feel to have made such a massive impact on Rhode Island wrestling? Advertisement Do you know the only hall of fame I'm not in? Which one? Where are we from? Oh, Coventry, that's crazy! They have to get you in there, man! I think I'm a good nominee! But, in all seriousness, I've been very blessed to have great coaches, and I've been very lucky. I've surrounded myself with great assistant coaches. And when you recruit a lot of good kids, you win a lot of matches, and when you've been doing it a long time, that's how you get all those things, but it means a lot that we built the program from scratch, and we've offered a lot of opportunities. I'm very proud of the fact that more than half our lineup are local kids. But all that hall of fame stuff is just a sign of getting old and doing it a long, long time and surrounding yourself with really good people. Jason Simon is a student at Johnson & Wales University.
