Transgender athletes in college sports are rare, despite outsized political attention
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In July, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in women's sports and strip the record of former swimmer Lia Thomas as part of an agreement with the Department of Education. It was the same month that the Supreme Court announced that it will review Idaho's and West Virginia's state bans on transgender athletes joining female sports teams. The moves mark the country’s latest grappling with issues surrounding transgender athletes. More than half the states have now passed laws preventing transgender athletes from competing on schools’ female sports teams, saying they are trying to prevent competitive advantages. Where does the American public stand on these issues? And what are the larger implications and influences playing into this conversation? USA TODAY Education Reporter Zachary Schermele joins The Excerpt to talk through the issues from political and educational lenses.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson. |
| 0:08.5 | Today is Sunday, July 27, 2025. |
| 0:15.8 | In July, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in women's sports and stripped the record of former swimmer Leah Thomas as part of an agreement with the Department of Education. |
| 0:29.4 | It was the same month that the Supreme Court announced it will review Idaho's and West Virginia state bans on transgender athletes joining female sports teams. |
| 0:36.9 | The move marks the country's latest |
| 0:38.1 | grappling with issues surrounding transgender athletes. More than half the states have now passed |
| 0:42.6 | laws preventing transgender athletes from competing on school's female sports teams, saying |
| 0:47.1 | they are trying to prevent competitive advantages. Where does the American public stand on these |
| 0:51.6 | issues? And what are the larger implications and influences playing into this conversation? |
| 0:56.5 | To help us make sense of this moment, I'm now joined by USA Today Education reporter, Zach Shermally. |
| 1:01.6 | Zach, thanks for joining me. |
| 1:03.0 | Hey, Taylor. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:04.8 | So let's just go back to that news surrounding Leah Thomas. |
| 1:08.0 | That's the former UPenn swimmer who became the first transgender woman to win |
| 1:11.5 | an NCAA swimming competition in Division I back in 2022. Zach, what did the university agree to here |
| 1:18.7 | with the Department of Education? So this was a pretty significant agreement on the part of the |
| 1:24.5 | University of Pennsylvania. That's an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, |
| 1:29.3 | with the Federal Education Department, |
| 1:31.5 | and in particular with their office for civil rights, |
| 1:34.8 | which handles curbing discrimination for students and teachers |
| 1:39.9 | in any educational program that receives federal funding. |
| 1:45.0 | So there are a couple of pretty significant concessions |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.