Acts of truth and courage tend to have a multiplier effect.
Indeed, the acts themselves produce immediate good, and one never knows when they might inspire similar behavior in others.
According to Fox News, a group of young female athletes in Oregon has decided to defend their legal and moral rights after receiving inspiration from last month’s viral spat between Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and former college swimmer Riley Gaines.
High school track-and-field athletes Maddie Eischen, Sophia Carpenter, and others have sued the state of Oregon over laws that permit transgender athletes — boys pretending to be girls — to compete against actual girls.
On April 18 at the Chehalem Classic, held at Newberg High School in Newberg, Eischen, Carpenter, and others forfeited rather than compete against a male posing as a female.
Gaines, a prominent women’s sports advocate, contacted the girls shortly thereafter and raised the possibility of suing the state.
Then, last month, Biles and Gaines feuded publicly over the latter’s comments regarding a transgender softball pitcher in Minnesota.
On the social media platform X, Biles called Gaines “truly sick” and insisted that the former swimmer should focus on “a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports.”
In a separate post, the gymnast told Gaines to “bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.”
Do you support Riley Gaines?
To her credit, Biles later apologized for the attempt at body-shaming Gaines. The former swimmer accepted the personal apology while blowing holes in the gymnast’s woke arguments.
Meanwhile, Eischen and Carpenter watched the feud unfold and felt emboldened by the reactions of other X users.
“I think especially when Riley Gaines and Simone Biles, and that whole thing happened and kind of seeing how that played out and how the public responded, I think that was encouraging to see how many people are on the side of protecting women’s sports,” Carpenter told Fox.
Eischen had a similar response.
“All of the comments on Simone’s post were very negative to her, I saw people that commented on it, and I liked it. But there was a lot of shock that she had even said that, and disappointment,” Eischen said.
Carpenter added that the Biles-Gaines feud helped draw attention to the travesty of males in female sports.
“Your average American … I think a lot of people don’t pay as much attention to this issue, and I think that with that with the whole Simone Biles and Riley Gaines, with all that fallout, that definitely brought some more attention,” Carpenter said. “It kept it in the news cycle, it kept people looking and saying ‘hey, there’s this issue in girls’ sports that’s happening a lot more than people think it is.’”
Eischen, a recent graduate, will have no more opportunities to compete in high school athletics. She will, however, play women’s basketball at Oregon Tech beginning this fall.
Carpenter, on the other hand, will return to Newberg High School and continue her athletic career.
It will not be easy.
As Carpenter explained in a video posted to X in April, shortly after forfeiting at the Chehalem Classic, girls do not have the option of withdrawing from every competition if they hope to attract attention from college recruiters.
Still, she and three other girls found the courage to take a stand for fairness.
Carpenter — a brave and impressive young student — also had the courage to tell the truth about what happened.
“Four of us ended up dropping out of the competition,” she said. “And then the male athlete won.”
Sophia Carpenter, a HS junior, refused to compete against a male athlete at a track meet in Oregon two weeks ago. She told @Outkick that she was proud to take a stand, but can’t afford to risk her athletic career by doing that every time. These girls are in a no-win situation. pic.twitter.com/dm4m3Sl77m
— Dan Zaksheske (@RealDanZak) April 28, 2025
One prays, of course, that Eischen, Carpenter, and their fellow plaintiffs succeed in their lawsuit.
Meanwhile, schools and employers should fight to admit or hire young people of this caliber.
Thanks in part to Gaines, the world now gets to see their courage on display.
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