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South Carolina Women’s head basketball Coach Dawn Staley endorsed the idea of men competing in women’s sports so long as they identify as transgender.
Staley was asked the question by Outkick reporter Dan Zaksheske ahead of her team’s Final Four matchup with North Carolina State. “You just talked about, you know, what a massive weekend this is obviously for women’s basketball, women’s sports in general. One of the major issues facing women’s sports right now is the debate, discussion topic about the inclusion of transgender athletes, biological males in women’s sports,” Zaksheske noted.
When asked whether biological male athletes should be allowed to compete against women, Staley gave a long pause before answering. “If you’re a woman, you should play,” the two-time national champion coach eventually replied.
“Do you think transgender women should be able to participate in college basketball?” Zaksheske followed up.
Staley wasted in time in stating that the answer is “yes.”
“That’s the question you want me to ask. I mean, you want to ask, so I’ll give you that yes,” she said. “So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game. And I’m okay with that, and I’m okay with that. I really am.”
Staley has frequently weighed in on national political matters throughout her tenure as Gamecocks head coach.
In 2017, the team declined then-President Donald Trump’s invitation to the White House after their national championship win. Staley has also used her press conferences to criticize the former president on several occasions, mainly during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
