Team USA Athlete Told To Keep ‘Mouth Shut’ About Competing Against Trans Athletes

Team USA World Masters track athlete Cynthia Monteleone was reportedly told to keep her “mouth shut” for her “safety” after she raised concerns about a fair playing field when competing against transgender athletes.

“Words can’t describe how I felt walking up to that starting line in Spain next to a biological male-bodied athlete,” Monteleone told Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in an interview obtained by Fox News ahead of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

“The track athlete faced her first encounter in competing against a biologically born male during the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Málaga, Spain, when she ran against Yanelle Del Mar Zape, a transgender athlete from Colombia in a 400-meter race,” Fox News explained.

Monteleone asked officials on the field why a “male-bodied athlete” was competing in her meet.

“The European officials were actually very sympathetic, and they stopped the meet,” she said. According to Fox News, the track star “said the officials conferred with one another but then advised her that she needed to address her concerns with Team USA after the meet.”

Despite Zape’s biological advantages, Monteleone was able to beat Zape by a few tenths of a second, but immediately after the race she approached Team USA Track and Field to express her concerns.
“They told me: ‘For your own safety you should probably keep your mouth shut,’” she explained.

Monteleone went on to question the “psychological trauma” that female competitors suffer when being forced to compete against biological males who identify as females.  “I don’t believe in keeping quiet about something that is so grossly unfair,” Monteleone added.

As explained by Fox News, Monteleone “has another reason to be angry with the physical advantages biological males have over [female] athletes — her daughter shares her dream of competing on the track.”

Monteleone explained that in her daughter’s first high school track meet, she was forced to compete against a transgender athlete.

“She had to line up for her very first race, after training all year, along a biological male,” Monteleone said, describing how the transgender athlete had trained for only two weeks but “blew everybody away in the first 100 meters.”

“So she came in second,” Monteleone said. “And you know what’s at stake are things that are important: prize money, scholarships, awards.”

“She deserved to win. She put in the work. But she had no chance because of the biological advantage of this male-bodied athlete,” Monteleone added.