The Woodley Mini Meet was held on Jul 13, 2025 - a Sunday morning. I was volunteering as one of two Marshals at the meet (for a brief period, we had three Marshals, but the third volunteer left the deck after the freestyle events). I believe there were six NVSL member pools participating in the invitational meet.
Woodley pool is a 25 m pool with the six racing lanes running north to south. The start for 50 m events is on the north end; the start for 25 m events is on the south end. During the meet, I was mostly standing on the west edge of the pool and usually in the southwest corner. The participating pools each had a team area arrayed along the south and western edges of the pool and situated in the grass just off the pool deck. A rope goes around the pool deck ensuring that swimmers need to go through designated entrances onto the deck.
During the backstroke events and at the start of a 25 m event, I was standing in the southwest corner of the pool looking towards the start when I noticed a swimmer in a typical girls’ bathing suit with an obvious bulge below the waist lining up in one of the center lanes. Once I noted the bulge, I confirmed for myself with other more subtle differences in posture and physical stature that I was observing a boy in a girls’ event. I quickly scanned the other swimmers bodies to convince myself that I was seeing obvious physical differences between the swimmers further confirming that I was looking at a boy.
I watched the race and then moved towards the north end of the pool to be doubly sure that I had seen a boy compete. After visually confirming (in the same way as described above) that I’d seen a boy, I approached the meet Referee. I said “I just saw a boy swimming against the girls.” The Referee expressed disbelief, and smiled saying something like “C’mon man. No way.” I responded, “I just saw it. No one can tell me I didn’t.” I asked where the Meet Host was and said I was going to talk to the Meet Host. As I finished the conversation with the Referee I said something like “This is b******t.” At that point I moved off the deck to find the Meet Host and the Woodley Swim Team Representative. I asked “Do we allow boys to swim against girls?” The Meet Host said simply, “No.” I responded “Well, I just saw it happen.” The Meet Host was disbelieving and walked with me back onto the pool deck and we stood along the western edge in discussion while watching additional races.
During my conversation with the Meet Host, the Meet Host realized that I did not mean that I had seen a boy dressed in a boys swimsuit competing in a girls’ race or that we had run a mixed gender race (this meet did not have any mixed gender events or heats), but that I had seen a boy registered as a girl and swimming against girls in a girls’ race. At that point, I saw the Meet Host’s expression change to dejection. The Meet Host expressed agreement with the idea that boys should not compete in girls races, even expressing the more conservative position that girls times should not be counted when they achieve those times in boys races. Explaining that girls competing against boys also gain competitive advantages not available to girls who only compete against girls, therefore those girls times should not be counted in swim records. However, the Meet Host deferred to the NVSL’s general non-stance on the issue of “trans” swimmers swimming in events according to their self-identified or parent-identified “gender”. The Meet Host said that NVSL basically allowed parents / guardians to register swimmers as whatever sex they wanted and then did nothing to enforce or define the major categories “Boy” or “Girl” despite those categories being the first descriptor in any NVSL event (e.g. “Girls 9-10 SC 50 m Freestyle”). Neither does NVSL provide guidance to pool’s about their handling of so-called “trans” swimmers.
After our lengthy conversation during which we also discussed more casual topics like my own children’s performance and improvement throughout the summer, we separated. I continued acting as the Marshal and nothing further would happen until the butterfly events. As one of the 25 m butterfly events was starting, I noticed the same swimmer leaving the Clerk of Course and move towards the start of the next event. He was easy to recognize the second time because I had already noticed him earlier. As he approached the start, on the southern end of the pool - I again approached the Referee. I told the Referee “There he is. It’s happening again. There is a boy going against the girls.” I indicated the swimmer I was talking about with my eyes and some head movement. I said this as I moved from the northern end of the pool to the southern end of the pool, following as the Referee moved in the same direction. I then indicated, with some purposeful eye movement, to the Meet Host, who was already standing on the southern end of the pool, the boy that was intending to swim against the girls.
I moved to stand in the southwest corner of the pool deck and watched as neither the Referee or the Meet Host did anything to stop the event or enforce the rules. Since it was a 25 m event, the Referee, Meet Host, and Starter were also standing in the southwest corner of the pool and in front of me facing the pool. As the girls’ event started and the swimmers, including the boy, moved to the starting position, three women in the team area directly behind me began to cheer and move into a better vantage point for recording or taking photos.
Once I confirmed by observing both their movements and voices that the women were supporting the boy in the race, I decided that I needed to say something to them. I did not consider this enforcement action proper to the role of the Marshal, but rather something I needed to do as someone who cares about sport and fair competition. On a deeper level, I consider it a profound abuse to confuse children about their sex. I knew that no single act of mine in that moment would solve the child’s problem or convince his team of their profound error, but neither could I stomach the idea that I had a chance to help in some way and did not. I did not have anyone from my family in the event nor do I know if anyone from Woodley was competing in this particular event. I would describe my actions as arising from a deep personal conviction and desire for justice. A detractor might say I acted out of a naive idealism and overzealous self-righteousness.
I did not say anything immediately as I considered my words. Finally, I settled on three questions to the spectators which were focused on my specific observations of their actions. The spectators were standing to my immediate left, but behind the rope off the pool deck. I turned to them and I asked three questions, pausing very briefly between each question. The questions were asked in normal volume and I strained to keep my tone from being frustrated, though I imagine that by the third question frustration had seeped into my tone. I asked: