A Cherokee County woman who has become an advocate for fairness in women’s sports is condemning the 2024 Paris Olympics for allowing biological men to compete in women’s boxing.
Payton McNabb, 19, was severely injured by a transgender opponent during a North Carolina high school volleyball game and still suffers from partial paralysis and a host of other medical problems.
“There is a biological difference between the two (trans women and women), there is a difference in sports because of this in the first place,” McNabb, 19, told DailyMail.com about the decision the Olympic Committee had made allowing two trans women to box biological women at the games in Paris.
Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan were allowed to compete in the women’s divisions despite being banned from competing in the Women’s World Boxing Championships in March 2023 in New Delhi because they failed gender eligibility tests.
On Thursday, the fight between Italy’s Angela Carini and Khelif took just 46 seconds. Carini received two punches from Khelif, and threw her helmet onto the floor, yelling, ‘This is unjust.’
The 25-year-old refused the handshake and fell to the canvas sobbing. She said she had never been hit so hard before in her life.
The Italian government and the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) expressed concern yesterday about Carini facing off against Khelif.
“It’s dangerous to have the two (sexes) competing together, and just not ok,” McNabb said. “I am disgusted by this, personally. This is morally wrong and evil. These women have worked so hard and trained tirelessly to get all the way to the Olympics, all so they can get punched in the face by a dude.”
She added that it is such a weird reality that the world is living in now and that it used to be illegal for men to beat up women, and now people are watching it on TV.
During her senior year in 2022, McNabb was severely injured in a Hiwassee High School volleyball game in which she was playing against Highlands High School. A transgender athlete on the opposing team spiked a ball into her head, knocking her unconscious and ending her athletic career, which consisted of volleyball, basketball, and softball. She suffered from a concussion, permanent whiplash, and a brain bleed.
McNabb is also still dealing with vision impairment, cognitive issues, partial paralysis on her right side, and more, leaving doctors to question if she will ever be the same again.
In an interview with Carolina Journal last year McNabb said that the athlete who caused her injuries has yet to apologize for them and has only messaged her once since to explain why they took the shot.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act last year and overrode a veto from Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper.
The bill prevents biological female athletes from being forced to compete against biological male transgender athletes in school sports designated for females. The bill would not prevent transgender athletes from participating on teams that are co-ed or designated for their biological sex at birth.
McNabb said about the veto at the time, “The veto of this bill was not only a veto on women’s rights but a slap in the face to every female in the state.”
Both she and collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines testified on behalf of the bill.
Gaines’ story became national news after she tied transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in an NCAA championship race designated for women, and the organization honored Thomas, a biological male, instead of Gaines.
MCNabb is now a nineteen-year-old communications student at Western Carolina University and an ambassador with the Independent Women’s Forum. Her experience led her to join the forum, which promotes fairness in women’s sports.
She was a part of the Our Bodies, Our Sports Take Back Title IX Summer 2024 Bus Tour.
It came ahead of the Biden Administration’s rewrite of Title IX, which took effect Thursday, Aug. 1. However, it excludes 26 states, of which North Carolina is not one, that have the new legislation blocked by injunctions and lawsuits. In Pennsylvania for example, more than 100 Pennsylvania schools are exempt from the Biden Administrations new Title IX requirements after a Moms for Liberty lawsuit blocked it.
The Title IX rewrite equates biological sex with “gender identity” in the effort to ensure that women have equal opportunity in education. That includes athletics, and will require schools and athletic competitions to allow any athlete to opt into a competition that matches their perceived gender identity.
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