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A decade ago, if a woman ran a sub-three-hour Boston Marathon only six months after giving birth, she was pretty much guaranteed a fawning spread in a fitness magazine.
But last week, only days after running the vaunted race in 2:50:04, new mom Natalie Daniels was booted from her running club in the DC metro area.
The reason? She spoke up about fairness in women’s sports.
Daniels doesn’t believe that trans runners should take up women’s spots in races — especially in Boston, which caps the number of marathon participants.
“I don’t want anyone to think that there’s not a place for trans athletes in sports writ large,” the 33-year-old told me in an emotional interview. “All I am saying is that women — biological women — in women’s sports are valid and they deserve integrity in the results.”
Daniels, who has won five of the 18 marathons she’s run, initially signed up for Boston when she was eight months pregnant with her first child, son Cooper.
While in training, she read a social media post from Jennifer Sey, the founder of XX-XY Athletics, about how the Boston Marathon was going to let a trans woman compete in the women’s open category on April 21. Sey also noted that the race had a nonbinary category that has only been won by men since its inception two years ago.
The takeaway: It was possible for biological men to sweep all categories.
“This was the antithesis of why I signed up — which is to celebrate my female body and to compete in a meaningful way with other women,” Daniels said. “During pregnancy, this became more important to me.”
She was inspired to reach out to XX-XY, an apparel company that was founded on keeping women’s sports female.
“I said, ‘Hey, if you guys came up with a Boston special singlet, I would wear it proudly,'” Daniels recalled. She also agreed to do an interview with the brand, published on YouTube, in which she discussed her common sense views about biology and fair competition.
She thought maybe 100 people would see it. But things exploded when Olympic runner Nikki Hiltz — a biological woman who identifies as trans and nonbinary and who competes in the female category — made a snarky rebuttal video that went viral.
“I thought the whole point of a marathon was to get the best out of yourself. And can I have fun along the way … ” Hiltz says in the video, posted on Tiktok. “Are you mad because, instead of 900th [place], you’re going to take 901 because a trans woman maybe beats you?”
Daniels, who actually came in 110th in the women’s division in Boston, feels Hiltz was diminishing amateur runners: “She was saying competition doesn’t matter and integrity in your sport doesn’t matter.”
Daniels’ Instagram quickly filled up with harassing comments and strangers started liking data from her Strava app, which shows running locations, to “intimidate” her.
On the Saturday before the race, her coach suggested she not wear the club’s uniform for her own safety.
He also asked her to make a “clarifying statement” to the club. Daniels said she told them she apologized if she had made people upset. But she did not apologize for her view that women’s sports should be for biological women.
She also agreed not to post anything else on Instagram about it. But she was active on X “because people were being nice. It was an emotional boost.”
Daniels declines to name the club because she doesn’t want people to target them. Instead, she wants “to show that speaking your mind about fairness will still come at a personal cost.”
The day after the race, her club — which she has belonged to for over a year — asked her to make a public declaration essentially rebuking her views.
Daniels declined. But after Sey shared her story on X on April 23, she received an email dismissing her from the club.
“There is a distinction between good faith discussions regarding transgender and non-binary individuals in competitive sports versus bullying, harassing, diminishing and dehumanizing individuals,” the letter read.
It also claimed that Daniels “repeatedly and purposely” misgendered Hiltz, a biological woman, by referring to the runner as a woman.
“Instead of engaging, they sent this email to say I didn’t operate in good faith … It feels like a policing of thought,” Daniels said.
Another member of the run club told me that the situation was handled improperly — adding that Daniels is one of the more popular females in the club and some other runners agreed with her.
“They threw the book at her when they could have easily recognized her right to express her own opinions independently of the club,” the member said.
The club has a right to maintain membership as they see fit. But they are shutting down meaningful debate about fairness in women’s sports by calling it bullying.
Recognizing biology is not bullying. Banishing someone for beliefs that align with close to 80% of Americans? Yeah, that feels more compatible with the b word.
Now that Daniels is a free agent, she’s planning to launch an online running community with Sey and XX-XY.
She said she has thought a lot about her decision to speak out and the impact it’s had on her life. And she has no regrets.
“I’ve seen middle schoolers and teenage athletes take a knee [to protest competing against biological males]. I keep thinking, ‘Where are the adults?'” Daniels said. “And I am the adult now. I should say something. And I did.”
English (US)