A former high school track star is suing the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference over its policy of allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sports.

Chelsea Mitchell (left) racing against transgender athlete Terry Miller (center)

Chelsea Mitchell is a 20-year-old woman who is fighting to keep biological men out of women’s sports.

In high school, Mitchell was a track star, breaking two school records in her first-ever track meet as a freshman at Canton High School in 2016. As Mitchell puts it, she was the “fastest girl in Connecticut.”

However, she was in for a surprise when she attended her first statewide competition and found herself competing against a transgender athlete who bumped her out of qualifying.

By her sophomore year, there were two transgender athletes competing in Connecticut’s high school league and consistently beating out biological female athletes. It was these two trans athletes that Mitchell had to compete against in every major race she ran for all four years of her high school career.

Throughout her high school career, Mitchell lost over 20 races to biological males.

Overall, Mitchell lost two all-New England awards and four girls’ state championships due to the losses she suffered due to the trans competitors.

“Just two athletes took so many opportunities away from biological females,” Mitchell told the New York Post. “Even though there were only two of them, they took 15 state championships away from other girls – and there were 85 girls that were directly impacted from them being in the races.”

During her senior year, Mitchell and two other Connecticut track stars, Selina Soule and Alanna Smith, joined together to file a lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference with the goal of overturning the policy that allows athletes to choose who they compete against based on their gender identity.

Chelsea Mitchell with other Connecticut track stars Selina Soule and Alanna Smith

The athletes’ argument will be heard in from of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City on June 6.

Mitchell is being represented by lawyer Matt Sharp with Alliance Defending Freedom.

“We’re hopeful that the court will declare that this Connecticut policy violates Title IX,” Sharp said. “We’re asking for the court to recognize the damage done to Chelsea and the other athletes and to restore their record and the credit that they rightfully worked hard to earn.”

Although Mitchell is currently running track in her senior year of college, she still wonders how the losses against the trans athletes impacted her college recruitment and scholarship opportunities.

“When colleges looked at me, they didn’t see a winner. They saw a second- or third-place,” Mitchell said. “I wasn’t a first-place finisher, and I think that’s what really hurt me.”

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