Adriana McLamb, a former Division I volleyball player and activist for girls’ and women’s sports, hit back at U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
Rapinoe last year mocked girls’ sports, specifically girls’ volleyball, while advocating for the inclusion of biological boys and men in female sports.
“I think it’s actually kind of absurd because we do care, especially as a volleyball player,” McLamb said on Fox & Friends, rebuffing Rapinoe’s commentary. “We very much do care about your daughter’s high school volleyball team.”
The athlete-turned-coach said that the inclusion of males in girls’ and women’s sports is not only unfair, but proving to be “unsafe.” McLamb referenced high school athlete Payton McNabb, who was seriously hurt in a game when a biological male spiked the ball at her face.
“Especially in the case of Payton McNabb, who actually testified this week in North Carolina, who is severely concussed and injured by a biological man on the other side of a net,” McLamb said. “So we very much do care because this is not just about it being unfair for female athletes, but we’re getting to the point that’s unsafe.”
“I think it’s common sense,” the athlete continued. “In the sport of volleyball, [in] the position I play … the male side is an average of over six feet tall. I’m five-four. I would never be able to compete against a biological male.”
“There’s reasons why the net is higher,” she added. “There’s a difference in baseball and softball fields. And there’s a reason Title IX was fought so, so hard for 50 years ago, so we had these separate categories, so we can all play on a fair playing field.”
Rapinoe told Time magazine last year that female athletes and their parents need to suck it up over advantages biologically male transgender athletes might have over girls.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
The forward said she’s “100% supportive” of “trans inclusion” in girls’ sports, dismissing concerns about fairness while emphasizing that people “need to understand that sports is not the most important thing in life.”
Rapinoe also argued that high-level sports are all about “regulation,” which the athlete apparently believes can erase trans athletes’ advantages. A recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that’s not true.
“I would also encourage everyone out there who is afraid someone’s going to have an unfair advantage over their kid to really take a step back and think what are we actually talking about here,” the 37-year-old said. “We’re talking about people’s lives. I’m sorry, your kid’s high school volleyball team just isn’t that important.”