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WNBA player Brianna Turner faced backlash on social media after writing an op-ed expressing her displeasure with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) policy to exclude men from women’s sports.
Turner, who recently signed a contract with the Las Vegas Aces after playing professionally in Australia, wrote in USA Today that she did not believe the new policy implemented by the IOC actually protected women’s sporting events.
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Indiana Fever forward Brianna Turner reacts after defeating the Atlanta Dream in Game 3 of the first round of the 2025 WNBA playoffs at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia on September 18, 2025. (Dale Zanine/Imagn Images)
The IOC has said it will use genetic testing to ensure women’s events feature only women. Turner accused the IOC of using the new policies to “scapegoat” transgender athletes while ignoring “real” issues regarding women in sport.
“Policies that target transgender women and athletes with intersex variations do not protect women’s sports. They create a scapegoat while the real challenges facing women’s sports go unaddressed: unequal funding, limited access to training and facilities, pay disparities, male-dominated leadership, gender-based violence, and harassment based on race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity,” Turner wrote Friday.
She also denied the IOC’s argument that the new policy is being adopted to ensure women’s sports are safe and fair, saying there was no biological advantage in transgender athletes.
WNBA player opposes new Olympics transgender policy, saying it does ‘everything but’ protect women
Indiana Fever forward Brianna Turner celebrates after defeating the Los Angeles Sparks 76-75 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California on August 29, 2025. (Kiyoshi Mio/Imagn Images)
“In over 15 years of organized basketball, I have played with and against transgender people and undoubtedly people with intersex variations, and I have never experienced any unfair advantages. I considered these players my fellow athletes, not my enemies,” Turner wrote.
She concluded by demanding that the IOC not use female athletes in its efforts to “shame or exclude” transgender athletes.
Turner received a torrent of responses on social media to his criticism of the IOC.
Turner’s op-ed followed a similar response from former U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Sue Bird.
“We already know that biology, as much as we want it to be just nice and clean and tight and perfectly in one category and another, that’s not the case,” Rapinoe said earlier this month. “We know that. So now what we’re doing is subjecting everyone, all women and everyone who identifies as women, to this really invasive test that, to me alone, says, ‘Oh, we’re just trying to narrow it down to a certain type of woman.’ Is this what we do? That’s really the whole game here.”
Bird said the IOC’s policy amounted to “scaremongering.”
Turner is expected to play with the Aces this season. She was with the Indiana Fever in 2025 and the Chicago Sky in 2024 after spending the first five seasons of her career with the Phoenix Mercury.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry speaks to volunteers, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, January 29, 2026. (Daniele Mascolo/Pool Photo via AP)
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There are no known transgender athletes competing in the WNBA.
