Chelsea Mitchell is not going down without a fight and she has plenty of people that have her back.
Chelsea Mitchell – ‘the fastest girl in Connecticut’ – is suing the state after losing to trans athletes throughout her high school career.
If she did not know already, the collegiate runner at Belmont found out Sage Steele’s daughter competed with Mitchell at the middle school level.
The ESPN personality took to Twitter and made sure she knew she was applauding her for her fight.
“My oldest daughter went to middle school w Chelsea here in Connecticut…where biological boys are allowed to compete in girls’ sports,” Steele said in a message on Twitter. “Since 2020, Chelsea has been fighting to overturn this based on a Title IX violation. So proud of you, Chelsea!”
Mitchell says that as a high school senior, she was the fastest girl in Connecticut. But she believes running against transgender athletes made it an unfair fight.
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“I competed against two biological males all four years of high school,” Mitchell said. “I lost out on podium medals. I lost two all-New England awards, and then eventually, I lost four state championships to these two males.”
She added she lost some 20 times throughout her career to transgender athletes. While in high school, she anonymously filed a Title IX complaint against the state and its policies.
The following year, Mitchell, along with three other female athletes, filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools, the athletic conference, and boards of education in Connecticut.
“Everyone deserves to participate in sports, but it’s about where it’s most fair. In my experience, it was completely unfair to put these athletes in the female category, because we know there are biological differences between men and women,” Mitchell said, later adding: “If they’re going to say they have no advantage, we might as well just have one big category.”
Attorney Christina Kiefer says the case is about “restoring basic fairness and a level playing field” in women’s sports.
“We believe that it’s really clear males have inherent physical advantages over females that makes it unfair to force girls like Chelsea to compete against males in their sport,” Kiefer said.
The lawsuit is attempting to overturn a policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity, regardless of their biological sex.
Mitchell insists the “female category needs to be protected.”
“It’s not fair to make us run against biological males, and so that’s really my motivation behind this. It’s just protecting the female category,” Mitchell said.
