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In 1902, British skater Madge Syers became to compete at . At the time, there were . Syers came in second to Swedish phenom Ulrich Salchow, , and Salchow was so taken with Syers鈥� skill that he presented her with the gold medal during the ceremony.

The International Skating Union (ISU) brought the subject of women competing against men to , where the nine members raised several concerns. One was that the prevented the judges from seeing their feet. (In response, Syers pioneered the trend of to give the judges a better view of her footwork.) Others included the possibility of a male judge having to gauge the performance of a skater he might be romantically involved with, and the 鈥渄ifficulty鈥� that women competing with men might encounter鈥攏ever mind that Syers had beaten most of the men she鈥檇 faced.

Ultimately, the ISU voted 6 to 3 to close the competition to women. began in 1906, and Syers won that competition the first two years it existed. She also , the first games to feature figure skating. By medaling, Syers solidified her reputation as a world-class athlete鈥攁nd a threat to the traditional, male-dominated institution of competitive sports. Thanks to sexism, men consider comparisons to a woman to be . But it鈥檚 even more than that, says Laura Pappano, co-author of the 2007 book . Women who beat men are 鈥渘ot just a threat to men, but a threat to the social order and a threat to the man鈥檚 hierarchy in the social order,鈥� she says.

With questions still swirling about gender equity in sports, such as transgender inclusion and , it鈥檚 worth asking how we ended up with sex-segregated sports in the first place. While it might appear to be 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� to organize sports into binary sex categories, people have been asking questions about the best ways to organize sports for more than a century鈥攁nd the answer wasn鈥檛 always the one we鈥檝e settled on today.

Olympic trapshooting was mixed-gender until 1992, when, for the first time ever, at the Barcelona Games. Chinese shooter (and ) by hitting 200 straight shots. After that, the International Shooting Sport Federation and didn鈥檛 institute a trapshooting competition for women until 2000, forcing Zhang to prematurely retire from the sport.

鈥淪port has always been a way of enforcing social norms,鈥� Pappano says. 鈥淎nd when those social norms are disrupted by play, it makes people uncomfortable.鈥�

We鈥檙e now seeing this threat applied to transgender women, who are mostly allowed to play sports against cisgender women until they have some degree of success. Once trans women begin to win, , , and because they鈥檙e now perceived to be a threat to the status quo. 鈥淔or some reason, people really cling to that sex-segregated system,鈥� says , associate professor of sport management at the University of Lynchburg. 鈥淧eople get really angsty when you think about possible new structures for sport.鈥�

What actually codified sex-segregated sports was Title IX, the legislation long touted as a progressive step for women鈥檚 sports. The legislation itself . Instead, it was designed to address women鈥檚 entry into educational institutions as students, scholarship recipients, and faculty鈥攚hich is why it .

Organizations like the NCAA fought to limit Title IX鈥檚 application to sports, fearing it would jeopardize their men鈥檚 sports programs (i.e., income streams). Meanwhile, women鈥檚 rights groups were asking legislators to consider every angle before applying Title IX to athletics. 鈥淣OW is opposed to any regulation which precludes eventual integration,鈥� the National Organization for Women . 鈥淩egulations that 鈥榩rotect鈥� girls and/or women are against NOW goals and are contradictory to our stand on .鈥�

Both the Supreme Court鈥檚 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, striking down 鈥渟eparate but equal,鈥� and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 informed reactions to the passage of Title IX in 1972. Groups like NOW had a long-term vision for a co-ed or integrated system, which would have been easier to implement because it required a single division for each sport, as opposed to creating separate divisions and facilities for each sex. But because Title IX formed its protections on the basis of a sexual binary, all federal legislation based on Title IX had to adopt this binary structure as the primary way to organize federally funded activities, including public sports. In doing so, Title IX not only failed to challenge assumptions of girls鈥� athletic inferiority, by codifying separate divisions that further entrenched the idea.

鈥淚 think we need to take a hard look at the messages that we send when we create restrictions, especially at the school and recreational level,鈥� Pappano says. While Title IX itself permits sex-segregated sports, the courts have overwhelmingly suggested that in the U.S. Constitution does not. In all five prominent cases in which girls have sued for the right to try out for a boys鈥� football team, courts have ruled that they must be permitted. In one case, the court said that classifications must not reflect 鈥渁rchaic and stereotypic notions鈥� about sex differences.

Legally, however, boys attempting to gain the right to play on girls-only teams have not been as successful. Courts have decided that since Congress intended Title IX to be a remedy for historical discrimination against women, individual boys could be denied the right to play on girls鈥� teams. The asymmetry of athletic opportunities offered to men and women is what refers to as the best justification for the 鈥渙ne-way ratchet that allows women to participate in male-only sports without extending the same opportunity to males who wish to participate in female-only sports.鈥�

But for all the social reasons that coercive sex segregation is an unfair way to organize sports, there are more serious issues at play. Sex isn鈥檛 actually a binary, which remains the most obvious reason why sports shouldn鈥檛 be organized by binary gender categories. People aren鈥檛 neatly organized into 鈥渕ale鈥� and 鈥渇emale鈥濃�攊ntersex, nonbinary, and transgender people exist and are always going to present a challenge to any system that insists on separating people into two gender categories. 鈥淸Many things have] a biological range, and we鈥檙e trying to create this dichotomy that鈥檚 very sharp,鈥� Pappano says. 鈥淢ichael Phelps has and really long feet that allegedly . And yet, we鈥檙e not saying [if] your feet are bigger than this, you can鈥檛 compete. We鈥檙e creating a set of parameters that, if we were to step back, don鈥檛 make sense, may not be fair, and I think can be hurtful to the people who play.鈥�

It鈥檚 hard to know exactly how many people are intersex or transgender, but an estimated and about 0.5% of adults in the U.S. are transgender, though among younger generations. While there has been plenty of scholarship about the benefits of integrated teams, there has been little research about what desegregating sports would mean for trans athletes. Experiences on integrated sports teams can prove formative and affirming for trans young people, even before they know they are trans.

Connor, a 33-year-old transmasculine person, played on a boys鈥� hockey team from the age of 12. (Connor is withholding their last name for privacy reasons.) Not everyone was happy they were there. After Connor鈥檚 coach held a meeting and explained that Connor, who was living as a girl at the time, would be the team鈥檚 goalie, two boys were pulled off the team by their parents. Yet Connor鈥檚 coach continued to support them, a rarity in many sports. 鈥淚t was probably the first time in my life I felt like I had someone on my side,鈥� Connor says. Even still, their presence caused waves. 鈥淲hen I made the team, I knocked a returning goalie off the team roster,鈥� they explain. 鈥淗e was offered the backup spot and turned it down and transferred schools to play for a different team.鈥�

Despite this opposition, Connor鈥檚 connection with their teammates remained strong, even as adults, when they came out as trans. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have language for how I felt,鈥� Connor says. 鈥淏ut I did know that when I was on that [boys鈥橾 team and I pulled on my helmet, I felt the most 鈥榤e鈥� I could.鈥� When Connor told their best friend from the team that they were trans, his response was that nothing changed, as long as he could keep calling them goalie. 鈥淸But] not everyone gets a positive experience being the only girl or perceived girl on a team,鈥� Connor says.

Sara Hovda, a 30-year-old trans woman, grew up playing basketball, football, and track on boys鈥� teams in Minneapolis. She says that despite being one of the best players on the football team, she was 鈥渘ever really 鈥榦ne of the guys.鈥欌�� Indeed, trans kids playing on teams that align with their assigned gender at birth鈥攅ven if those kids don鈥檛 yet know they are trans鈥攃an feel alienated or experience increasing dysphoria.

鈥淭here was always this strange disconnect between me and any other person on my teams, especially in football where it鈥檚 a little more hypermasculine,鈥� Hovda says. 鈥淭here is this narrative about trans women as having 鈥榤ale socialization,鈥� but it is an inherently traumatic experience,鈥� she says, citing how uncomfortable she was, especially around the sexualized 鈥渓ocker room talk鈥� from her teammates. 鈥淚f I had come out when I was younger, I probably would not have done any sports and I probably would have been happier for it, as opposed to doing sex-segregated sports [with boys],鈥� says Hovda.

If people could choose which category they felt safest competing in, perhaps coercive sex segregation wouldn鈥檛 be as traumatic as it is for those who fall outside of binary sex categories.

If people could choose which category they felt safest competing in, perhaps coercive sex segregation wouldn鈥檛 be as traumatic as it is for those who fall outside of binary sex categories. When, toward the end of high school, Connor transferred to an elite girls鈥� hockey team to try to have a better chance of getting a college scholarship, they 鈥渉ad a terrible time of it.鈥� There was an assumption that the team environment would be better for Connor because they were finally going to be on a team of girls, but that wasn鈥檛 the case. 鈥淎ll I could think was, 鈥業 am not like you at all,鈥欌�� they recall. In short order, they switched back to the boys鈥� team鈥攁nd were still able to get a scholarship to play Division I girls鈥� hockey.

The current push by anti-trans groups to weaponize Title IX to exclude trans girls from girls鈥� athletics is 鈥渟uch a misrepresentation鈥� of the legislation, says Pieper. The Biden administration has affirmed that , which includes transgender athletes. 鈥淭ransgender youth should be able to play with people based on their joy of movement and athletic interest and ability and not feel this pressure based on social norms,鈥� says Pappano.

Both Connor and Hovda agree that the environment for young trans athletes today is particularly hostile, given the spate of legislation in states around the country , public accommodations, and athletic participation. 鈥淚f I were 15 now and trying to play sports, I would have thrown in the towel,鈥� says Connor. Hovda agrees: 鈥淲ith how things are now I would rather just not do sports.鈥�

This sex-segregated system would be less of an issue if the sex categories in athletics weren鈥檛 so heavily policed. Sports participation at the collegiate and professional levels is often , and bills are being passed across the U.S. that would subject students suspected of being trans to .

鈥淪ports officials are trying to uphold this false binary and keep turning to medical and scientific practices to do so,鈥� says Pieper, who wrote the 2016 book . 鈥淎nd every time, it鈥檚 being shown that that鈥檚 not a way you can divide people because people can鈥檛 be divided neatly into just two categories.鈥� And yet, Pappano says, 鈥淪ports are only becoming more entrenched鈥� in the gender binary.

There are plenty of reasons to integrate sports: Boys can learn to respect and befriend the girls on their team, while girls can access the same social benefits as their male counterparts. Inclusion also chips away at the overarching narrative that women鈥檚 and girls鈥� sports are , and therefore women and girls, as athletes, are inferior to men. And yet, it鈥檚 often an uphill battle for girls who play on boys鈥� teams. to the point that they鈥檙e forced to drop out, while others persist on their self-confidence or mental health. 鈥淪o much of sports is psychological,鈥� Pappano says. 鈥淗ow do you play when you are constantly told that you don鈥檛 belong somewhere, that you shouldn鈥檛 be there? It鈥檚 a psychological burden.鈥�

That burden was intensified for Alexa van Sickle, 38, who played baseball as a child. When she joined her team at age 9 or 10, she was assumed to be a boy on the first day and she never corrected her coaches or teammates. 鈥淭he impact of hiding was the concern of being found out, for my gender to be any factor at all in my experiences with the team,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember it as a negative experience, but it also fundamentally sucks that I felt I had to.鈥�

In sports like baseball, where there鈥檚 past high school, girl players may receive less investment and development from their coaches because they鈥檙e seen as having no future in the sport. As a result, girls鈥攅specially those playing sports that don鈥檛 have women鈥檚 collegiate or professional teams to aspire to鈥攎ust constantly prove that they deserve to be on the team. 鈥淚 had to be so good that the coaches would want me to play,鈥� Connor says. 鈥淚 wanted to keep playing on the boys鈥� teams, and [being the best] was the way to do it, and that was how I did it.鈥�

鈥淚 do think a lot of young people, because [physical education] has been desegregated, they grow up playing with everyone, and you learn a lot about yourself and about others when you鈥檙e playing sports with everyone.鈥�

鈥擵ictoria Jackson

Prior to Title IX, . , clinical assistant professor of history at Arizona State University, sees that as a model for moving forward. 鈥淭hat, I think, is where we really saw the potential transformative power of Title IX in a school setting,鈥� Jackson says. 鈥淚 do think a lot of young people, because [physical education] has been desegregated, they grow up playing with everyone, and you learn a lot about yourself and about others when you鈥檙e playing sports with everyone.鈥�

Some club-level sports, like , are already integrating their divisions to allow athletes to self-select where they compete. And, at the youth level, many sports are co-ed until the kids hit puberty. Some people, , have suggested organizing sports based on things like height or weight class, rather than gender. Ultimately, however, until society is ready to have complicated conversations about gender, it鈥檚 going to be difficult to integrate sports.

鈥淚t may be a while before we get to the most elite competition at the highest levels, but let鈥檚 start creating a new norm around playing together recreationally and at school levels,鈥� says Pappano.

鈥淭here are all kinds of barriers to girls鈥� participation in ostensibly segregated sports,鈥� says van Sickle. 鈥淏lending in with the boys was how I was used to doing things, but for other girls at that age, that might not be comfortable. I saw myself as equal and therefore I felt I was, and I鈥檓 sure that helped me on the field. But that鈥檚 not the message most girls internalize, and that starts at a young age.鈥�

Hovda wonders what sports could have been like for her if they had been integrated when she was growing up. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 a potential for it to be even slightly better with desegregated sports, it鈥檚 worth the fight,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 worth the conversation.鈥�