2024 was a landmark year for women’s sports

My year end wrap up on women’s sports, for the Washington Examiner.

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Women’s sports finally broke through in 2024, bringing in crowds and major TV viewing audiences. Female athletes proved their financial viability and ability to draw crowds and buyers of their endorsed merchandise. Louisiana State University gymnast Livvy Dunne made $9.5 million during her time at LSU, selling goods for brands such as Vuori, making her one of the biggest beneficiaries of the NCAA’s new “name, image, and likeness” rules and making Vuori one of the hottest and fasting-growing fitness apparel challenger brands.

However, it was also the year that men unapologetically entered women’s sports, stealing women’s trophies and demanding to be called social justice heroes for their misogyny.

And women fought back.

Some might say the great un-wokening has begun, and 2025 will be the year that woke-ness truly unravels.

The 10 most pivotal moments in women’s sports in 2024

1. Riley Gaines ascended to rock star status, bringing together women from all political backgrounds to fight for the protection of women’s sports and biological reality. Gaines first came into the public eye in 2022 when she tied trans-identified male swimmer Will/Lia Thomas at the NCAA swimming championships and was told she needed to stand down and let Thomas accept the trophy. However, it was this year that she truly blew up, collecting a million and a half followers on X and becoming the unassailable leader of the movement to protect women’s sports.

2. On March 25, 2024, I launched my brand, XX-XY Athletics, the only athletic brand advocating the protection of women’s sports. While we have faced harassment and censorship — TikTok banned us from advertising in June — the brand has become central to this movement.

   People proudly wore our T-shirt courtside at the U.S. Open, at rallies outside courthouses, and inside school board meetings.

   We’ve become the mark of common sense and a very visible part of the resistance to the activist-driven lie that transgender women are women.

   My goal in launching this brand was to normalize standing up and saying sensible things, namely that men and women are different and that women deserve their own sports and spaces. It is working better than I could have planned. We hit seven figures in sales in under eight months, beating out Vuori’s sales in its first two years.

   Woke capitalism has been rejected, and “normie” capitalism is back, as evidenced by Apple‘s and Volvo’s family-friendly holiday ads. By the unanimous rejection of Jaguar’s woke nonsense ad featuring zero cars and endless nonbinary people. The hipster ad executives didn’t get the message — 2023 called, and it wants its ad back, Jaguar.

   “Normie” capitalism will return in 2025, with outstanding products and uplifting marketing with broad reach and appeal, and XX-XY Athletics is here for it because the majority of people agree with us that women’s sports must be protected. We are the normies, and we won’t be relegated to “parallel economy” status.

3. On April 19, 2024, President Joe Biden’s Department of Education released a 1,700-page rewrite of Title IX. Biden prioritized “gender identity” over women’s sex-based rights in this smuggled-in rewrite. While the rewrite did not directly address sports, which is what Title IX is most famous for, it stated that a person’s gender identity must be obeyed by educational institutions, therefore men who say they are women get to enter female locker rooms, sororities, rape crisis centers, and more.

   Although it was meant to go into effect on Aug. 1, many states rushed to implement it. Twenty-four states are off to the races and have even begun to implement it in sports despite that being noticeably absent from the 1,700 pages. The remaining states are resisting, holding the line in favor of reality.

4. There are two lawsuits in play challenging the progressive edict requiring men who claim to be women the right to compete in women’s sports.

   In the first, the lead plaintiff is Gaines, and there are 12 other athletes challenging the NCAA for taking away opportunities from female athletes by allowing men to steal their team berths, trophies, and scholarships.

   The second lawsuit, led by 12 Mountain West Conference volleyball athletes, is against the Mountain West Conference. It centers on San Jose State University allowing transgender-identified player Blaire Fleming to compete on its women’s volleyball team.

   During this season, women showed they’d had enough. SJSU went into the Mountain West Conference with six forfeit wins. Mountain West members Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State, Nevada, and Southern Utah canceled games this season against the SJSU Spartans because the team fielded a male on the women’s team.

   While a U.S. district judge denied a motion seeking emergency injunctive relief filed by the 12 plaintiffs that would have rendered Fleming unable to play in the conference championships, their case is still moving forward.

5. Star female athletes broke through and defied expectations. Aryna Sabalenka won the U.S. Open with her fitness coach Jason Stacy on the sidelines in an XX-XY Athletics cap. Simone Biles made a monster comeback, winning the Olympics at age 27, which is basically considered old-age-home-ready in gymnastics. Caitlin Clark broke every imaginable record in NCAA women’s basketball, including all-time scoring, points in a season, and 3-pointers in a season. She also drove fan engagement with record-breaking TV viewership in her final season in the NCAA. She went on to the professionals and continues shattering attendance and viewership records.

6. At the Olympics in Paris, two male boxers won gold in the women’s category, with a feckless International Olympic Committee defending their wins, hiding behind nonexistent “science,” and stating that males have no advantage in sports.

7. In October, the United Nations released a report stating that nearly 900 medals across 29 sports went to males in the women’s category.

8. President-elect Donald Trump decisively won the presidency on Nov. 5. On the campaign trail, his statement that he would protect women’s sports drew the largest applause.

9. Postelection, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said, “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” Then, members of his staff resigned, and there were calls for him to resign.

10. On Dec. 20, in a “take out the trash” PR moment, the Biden administration rescinded its proposal to require educational institutions to allow males to compete in women’s sports.

A new anti-woke era for women’s sports

It was a crazy year, with women’s sports taking a front seat and female athletes generating viewership and sponsorship deals like never before. However, males stealing women’s trophies accelerated and even happened on the world stage at the Olympics.

The clash is here. However, the tide has turned. People are no longer afraid of being called baseless names by unhinged activists. The commonsense position is emerging as the clear winner, but the fight is not over.

The “wokesters” won’t give up without a fight. Major institutions, including legacy media, universities, and the IOC, are still filled with woke acolytes, and they won’t go quietly.

However, people across political parties are standing up to say “NO MORE” to men in women’s sports or spaces. The great un-wokening is upon us, and the return to reality is nigh.