Former NCAA swim captain warns Virginia elections could decide future of women's sports

A former NCAA swim captain from Virginia who has alleged retaliation by university officials after objecting to a transgender student joining her team said she is "100%" concerned about the results of the upcoming statewide elections and the impact they could have on women in sports.

The concerns about the matter fell on deaf ears and were brushed aside by college administrators, Mullens said, but she noted that Republican officials in the state came to her and her teammates' defense.

Current Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is also up for re-election and is being challenged by Democrat Jay Jones, who is dealing with the fallout from resurfaced text messages showing him wishing death upon a Republican colleague.

The issue stemmed from a transgender student who previously swam on the school's all-male swim team but wanted to switch to the all-female team following hormone therapy and other transitioning measures in the fall of 2023.

A meeting of the swim team and its members to discuss the new swimmer's upcoming participation was one moment Mullens saw firsthand that her college's administrators were unlikely to support her objections.

"At one point, it was discussed that this individual, without the transition, had thought about and gone through with planning a suicide. So, that was something that was told to all of us."   

Mullens, who described herself as a religious person, said she and her teammates' first reaction was confusion after the swimmer shared specific details about a suicide plan. 

"All of us felt emotionally confused. We didn't know what to do," Mullens previously shared with Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, school administrators present at the meeting "didn't say anything," according to Mullens recollection of the event. And on-campus mental health professionals were never notified about the situation until after Mullens and others went public with the matter in a press conference. Following the press conference, Mullens and her teammates were denied opportunities to study abroad in locations of their choice despite good academic performance and a history of extensive extracurricular activities, according to Miyares' findings. 

Mullens told Fox News Digital the explanations she and other swimmers got for their denials only added confusion to the whole matter even further. 

"Basically, it said, 'Not only is the professor responsible for the student's academics, but also for their behavior,'" Mullens said. "I had no idea what that means. I've never had any sort of disciplinary action to me." 

"We need leaders who are able to say, 'Absolutely not, we're just not going to let this happen,'" Mullens said.

Approximately a week ago, Youngkin issued Executive Directive 14, which directed the state board of health to begin drafting new policies requiring private spaces, such as locker rooms and bathrooms, and for sports teams to remain separated by students' gender assigned at birth. 

Her GOP opponent, Earle-Sears, unequivocally said she would not rescind the directive.

"I think it's insane that somebody who is wanting to be the top person when it comes to the law in the state can say that there's people he wishes death upon and things like that. That could very well turn into me. It could turn into my teammates," Mullens said. "The top of the law in a state should be somebody who you know is going to defend every single citizen, no matter what."

Mullens, meanwhile, called Miyares "instrumental" in supporting her and her teammates, including through helping get their story out to the broader public. 

"When Attorney General Miyares came out and said, 'Look, we're going to investigate what the school did to these girls,' we were just so grateful."