Guest Column by SheWon: The Impact of Male Inclusion in Female Sports

Who Really Won?

SheWon keeps track of the rightful winners in so-called girls’ and women’s competitions that allow male athletes to walk away with ribbons, trophies, bragging rights, or financial prizes. SheWon reached out to us at the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, and we are delighted to share this exclusive article by their team of anonymous volunteers.

Lauren Matthew lost to a boy called Veronica Garcia six times, including at the 2024 and 2025 state championships. She was the rightful winner every time.

Since 2015, there has been a sharp increase in male participation in female sports, with 95 percent of SheWon entries occurring in the last decade.

People try to minimize the impact of trans-identified boys in girls' sports by saying, "they're a tiny minority."

But what impact does that "tiny minority" have on girls and women? We – a small group of American and Canadian volunteers who care deeply about providing safe and fair opportunities for female athletes – were curious. And no one else—including school districts, colleges, recreational sports organizations, sport governing bodies—seems to be quantifying the impact on girls and women. That's why, in 2023, we formed SheWon to begin tracking this data.

SheWon archives the achievements of female athletes who were displaced by male competitors in women’s sports. We lift up athletes such as Lauren Matthew, the 400-meter runner from Washington who lost to a boy six times, including at the 2024 and 2025 state championships — but should have won. The site (SheWon.org) records the names and podium positions (first, second, or third) of women and girls, providing links to raw results and news stories.

How Often Are Women Displaced from the Winners’ Podium?

As of June 18, 2025, SheWon has documented 3,419 instances where females were displaced from their rightful podium spots across 1,433 competitions, impacting 2,389 women and girls in 46 different sports. These numbers undercount the true impact because we are limited to self-reports and our own research, which is based on male athletes publicly identified as transgender. We reject many user-submitted entries due to unverifiable transgender status or lack of published results. We cannot include most news reports, because they typically mention only the male athlete—leaving displaced female athletes unnamed. We exclude team sports because it’s not possible to determine which team would have won if the male athlete had not participated.

Growing Numbers of Male Athletes

In 2024, Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, published a report on violence against women and girls in sports in which she cited data as of March 30, 2024 showing 600 female athletes have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports. Over the past 15 months, SheWon demonstrates a near 600 percent increase in documented cases.

We are still actively entering data. However, even the available data in SheWon reveals significant patterns. Since 2015, there has been a sharp increase in male participation in female sports, with 95 percent of entries occurring in the last decade. HeCheated, a companion site that independently tracks male athletes competing in women and girls’ sports, shows the same trends.

Which Sports?

The majority of SheWon’s entries come from track and field (44%), followed by bike sports (21%) and distance running (10%).¹ These sports probably dominate because results are often publicly available online and involve individual competitors. Nearly all track and field competitions come from school competitions, and all appear after 2015. Middle school male participation has also surged post-COVID, suggesting a connection between trans identification and online social contagion. HeCheated reflects the same trends, with 98% of known high school competitions occurring 2015 and later, and 98% of all middle school competitions occurring 2020 and later.²

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This pattern aligns with larger cultural trends in transgender identification. Before 2015, most trans-identified males competing in women’s sports were middle-aged adults. For example, Liz Kocab—a military veteran—has dominated his age group in women’s fencing since 2013, winning nine world titles. Michelle Dumaresq, a male Canadian professional mountain biker, has competed in the women’s category since 2002, winning national titles and competing for Canada’s women’s team. After 2015, there is a dramatic shift in trans identification to young adults and children. The demographic shift toward youth is reflected in the Cass Review and is also evidenced by CDC data on youth and young adults.

The Impact of Male Inclusion

The “tiny minority” argument implies that the impact on girls and women must be negligible. Yet a single male athlete can have a huge impact. For example, Terry Miller, a male high school runner from Connecticut, is linked to 211 entries in SheWon. While most women and girls seem to compete only once against a male athlete, nearly a quarter of the female athletes identified by SheWon appear two or more times, reflecting multiple losses to the same boy or man in numerous events. One woman was displaced at least twelve times to one or more males.

Facts Matter Because Women Matter

Politicians and sports organizations are making policy decisions regarding gender inclusion in female sports without understanding—or even showing curiosity about—the consequences for women and girls. Even with incomplete data, SheWon underscores the scale of female displacement and the need for transparent, systematic documentation to assess the real impact of so-called gender-inclusive policies on women’s sports. This is especially important given the rise in the number of trans-identified males competing in female categories in the last decade, and the impact even a single male athlete can have.

Follow SheWon on X: @tachardiella and @shewon_org.

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1. We include a few outliers such as poker and dance (less than 0.1 percent of entries) to reflect other competitive activities where the “female” category becomes in effect coed.

2. HeCheated data accessed 4-15-2025.