A male runner’s defeat of seven women during a collegiate track meet drew criticism from a Christian university president.
“Biological males’ participation in women’s athletics is wrong,” Houghton University President Wayne Lewis stated on Monday. He made similar comments on the radio.
Lewis commented on the defeat of seven actual females by a male Rochester Institute of Technology runner named Sadie Schreiner.
Schreiner, who says he is a woman, beat seven real women in the 200-meter dash at the All-Atlantic Regional Championships for indoor track this last weekend.
Schreiner ran the race in 25 seconds. He would have been the slowest runner had he competed against his own sex.
More people need to speak up, President Lewis stated.
“Too many leaders, parents, professional athletes, and people of good will have been silent as female athletes are humiliated, silenced, and robbed of hard-earned opportunities,” the New York university president stated. “That silence is complicit with the fringe agenda that threatens to dismantle girls’ and women’s athletics.”
“I currently serve a Christian university as its president. I believe God has formed each of us, men and women, with intention and purpose,” Lewis stated.
He stated further:
I further believe sex and gender are a divine prerogative and are neither separate from each other nor subject to change. However, my assertion that biological males’ participation in women’s athletics is wrong is not a Christian position. It is a moral position. While I currently serve a Christian university, most of my career has been in the public sector as a teacher, professor, administrator, and state education chief. If I served in any of those roles again, my position would be the same.
He stated while “well-meaning” policies may try to be “inclusive” he “struggle[s] to understand how leaders with the best interest of girls and women at heart could advocate for or endorse practices,” that put “female athletes at a competitive disadvantage.”
The pro-transgender policies “also subject them to disrespect and embarrassment and place them at greater risk for harassment and assault.”
“Enough is enough,” Lewis stated.
“I will not sit by silently as a university president whose female student-athletes step weekly onto tracks, courts, and fields to compete but, in some cases, are forced to do so on playing fields we know to be unfair,” he stated. “I hope you will join me.”
Male runner, Sadie (Camden) Schreiner, is your new regional collegiate meet record holder in the women's 200 meter dash
So brave of him to continue breaking records by stomping on women done with a smile on his face🥹✨👏🏼 @RITtigers @RITathletics pic.twitter.com/8Vb1Cu1lm7
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) March 2, 2024
Schreiner’s victory also drew criticism from women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer.
“So brave of him to continue breaking records by stomping on women [,] done with a smile on his face,” Gaines wrote on X.
Originally published by The College Fix. Republished with permission.
For more great content from School Reform News.
For more from The Heartland Institute.