Transgender runner peeved after being spurned by Division I women’s teams

Even blue-state colleges are becoming wary of signing transgender athletes to play on women’s teams, based on Sadie Schreiner’s experience.

Schreiner, a biological male who competes as a sprinter in women’s NCAA Division III collegiate track, sought to transfer this year to a Division I program, but was rejected or ignored despite winning two-time All-American honors while competing at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

A junior, Schreiner said she was in contact with 42 Division I universities, some of which were unable to make her offers because of state bans on male-born athletes in female scholastic sports.

“After entering the transfer portal, it quickly became clear that among all the hurdles transfers usually have, there is an extra layer because I was trans,” said Schreiner in a Monday video on Instagram. “Fifty percent 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 full rides.”

Twenty-four states have no such restrictions, but even there, Schreiner said she was stymied by college administrators.

“It also became clear that even in the 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,” Schreiner said. “So I took the time to document all this.”

Schreiner was disappointed, declaring that “people are too afraid to support me,” but the athlete’s loss came as a gain for advocates of single-sex sports.

They viewed Schreiner’s experience as a sign that universities are souring on male-born players in women’s sports, finding that they aren’t worth the backlash even if they can help their programs win championships.

“The tide is turning,” the “I Heart Bikes” account, which documents biological males in women’s cycling, wrote on X. “Male track and field athlete Sadie (Camden) Schreiner, who only competes in the women’s category, is having trouble finding an @ncaa D1 school to transfer to.”

Tennis great Martina Navratilova had a message for Schreiner: “Please keep documenting. You are free to compete. In the male category. Very simple. And also fair.”

Please keep documenting. You are free to compete. In the male category. Very simple. And also fair. https://t.co/w93E3e3QY9

— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) December 31, 2024

Schreiner set records and won multiple track titles during the 2023-24 track season, but fell short at the NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship in May, placing third in the 200-meter and eighth in the 400-meter races.

A victory would have made Schreiner the third biological male to win an NCAA women’s title after CeCe Telfer, a hurdler who won a Division II title in 2019, and swimmer Lia Thomas, who captured a Division I crown in 2022.

Schreiner’s effort to jump to Division I may have come at a bad time. The NCAA was rocked during the fall season by the multi-school boycott over Blaire Fleming, a transgender volleyball standout at San Jose State University.

In November, 11 former and current Division I volleyball players sued to block Fleming from competing in the Mountain West Conference championships, but a federal judge rejected their motion.

The NCAA is also facing a lawsuit filed in March by 19 female athletes accusing the association of violating Title IX by allowing male-born players to compete in women’s sports based on gender identity.

“After our legal counsel, representing 19 female athletes — including a competitor of male DIII women’s track champion Sadie Schreiner — sued the NCAA, he is now finding it difficult to secure a full-ride women’s scholarship to transfer DI. Good,” said the Independent Council on Women’s Sports on X.

Schreiner, who also goes by Sadie Rose, vowed to keep competing, starting in January with the start of the indoor track season.

“Trans people are being attacked right now and our rights are being stripped away and those in power are either endorsing this or they’re just letting it happen,” Schreiner said. “But we’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere. And I’m sure, come this January, you’ll see me again competing on the track.”

Schreiner is not listed on the 2024-25 women’s track-and-field roster at Rochester.