Molly Appleton

The W in NWSL When I joined the National Women’s Soccer League 11 years ago, our games were live-streamed to fans on YouTube. Today, our league is halfway through a four-year, $240 million television contract. Our teams are among the most valuable franchises in women’s sports. Yet with this remarkable growth comes an urgent challenge: How do we preserve women’s rights and competitive fairness while fostering meaningful inclusion?   I’m proud to have played a small role in our league’s transformation from struggling startup to supercharged celebrity-maker. I’ve been a part of winning seven titles: three NWSL Championships, three regular-season titles and one International Champions Cup. But I’m concerned that without clarity about who the league is for, it will lose its identity and its momentum.   Recent controversies across women’s sports — from swimming to track and field — have highlighted the absence of clear eligibility policies in professional soccer, unlike a growing number of other competitions. This uncertainty serves no one, as questions and controversy abound over intersex and transgender athletes. Players have been excluded and then unexcluded, administrators have blamed and criticized each other, and fans have used the uncertainty to harass players.  Leaders from across the political spectrum, including progressives like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, have expressed support for stronger protections for the integrity of women’s sports. Ensuring fairness prompted numerous international leagues to tighten eligibility. World Athletics did so in 2023 for international track and field competitions. Other countries’ domestic organizations did the same, including the UK Athletics Federation. World Aquatics (formerly FINA), international swimming’s governing body, adopted clear rules about sex and gender eligibility in 2022. England’s Football Association now requires ovaries at birth.   Addressing this challenge entails remembering why women’s sports categories exist in the first place: not to exclude but to create a space where female athletes can physically compete on equal footing. Studies show measurable differences between men and women in muscle mass, bone density and cardiovascular capacity, which directly affect competitive outcomes. Further research has found male muscular advantage is only “minimally reduced” — by about 5% over 12 months — by testosterone suppression.   Fairness and inclusion are core American values. Reasonable people can disagree about where to draw lines, but avoiding the conversation altogether by shutting out diverse views does not serve us. In fact, we owe it to current and future female athletes to solve this.   The NWSL must adopt a clear standard. One option is all players must be born with ovaries, as the FA requires. Another option is an SRY gene test, like those World Athletics and World Boxing implemented.   This SRY genetic marker indicates male-developmental pathways during fetal growth, providing objective scientific criteria for competitive categorization. Critics say genetic-testing policies can cause psychological harm. This concern must be taken seriously. Testing could easily integrate into medical evaluations through existing blood draws or noninvasive cheek swabs, conducted once per career under strict confidentiality protocols. Athletes testing positive for the SRY gene could receive comprehensive support, including counseling, privacy protections and inclusion in professional networks. World Athletics has successfully used similar protocols since 2018, with legal challenges ultimately supporting such policies’ scientific basis.   Creating pathways for athletes traditionally excluded from competing at the highest level would demonstrate inclusion and competitive integrity can coexist.   I know from experience the NWSL is more than just a sports league. For many, dreams are coming true in real life — dreams that were impossible before my generation. I also understand that for many athletes and fans, seeing intersex and transgender athletes compete and dominate on sports’ biggest stages also realizes a dream. How can we make an open arena reality for small and tragically marginalized minorities with nowhere else that may feel safe and inclusive to compete?   The answer is in the NWSL’s own history. Just as we built a new space for women to compete in the largest arenas, now we must honor that commitment and make the National Women’s Soccer League for women. I welcome leaders including the aforementioned American politicians to come together with the NWSL’s blueprint and build solutions.   Some pathway ideas: an open division within the NWSL, small-sided opportunities like the Soccer Tournament and World Sevens Football, pathways to stay in the game and free counseling. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know we’re all in this together. It will take time, space and creativity to cooperate as we move forward.   Decisions the NWSL makes — or shirks its responsibility to make — will shape opportunities for young athletes of all backgrounds for decades to come. We must get them right by finding the most ethical and innovative path ahead.   Women’s sports showcase the full range of human ability as we reach and exceed what is physically possible. Everybody needs a chance to break records and achieve the previously impossible. That is why we love to celebrate women competing against each other and why we need creative solutions to ensure everybody can compete on a level playing field.  It would be nice to have no need for clear eligibility criteria. Unfortunately, when money, power and fame are at stake, which inevitably happens in professional sports, competitors may try to push on what is right or fair. Especially when the goal of winning requires using every available advantage.