Jennifer Sey continues to disappoint — NCAA rules update

Hello, and welcome to Gymnastics Insider!

This week, Mother Jones published a piece exploring how Jennifer Sey profits from anti-trans rhetoric.

The Woman Profiting Off the WNBA’s Trans Panic

I highly recommend that you read the article, but here’s the gist: Sey is a retired elite gymnast and the 1986 U.S. national all-around champion. In 2008, she wrote Chalked Up, a memoir that exposed the abusive culture of the elite world. She later became an outspoken advocate for the survivors of Larry Nassar’s abuse, and produced the documentary Athlete A.

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Since then, things have taken a turn. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, she publicly criticized school closures. Sey claims that her views resulted in her being ousted from her role as the chief marketing officer at Levi’s.

Now, she’s gone fully anti-trans, and she’s profiting from it. Sey founded XX-XY Athletics, an athletic apparel brand, in 2024. The for-profit company claims its mission is to “protect women’s sports,” using its consumers to market its message while also funding anti-trans activism — including donations to the hate group Gays Against Groomers — on the side. MyKayla Skinner is one of its brand ambassadors, as is 1988 Olympic gymnast Kelly Garrison-Funderburk.

As Mother Jones outlines, Sey’s apparel company was mostly fringe until the recent controversy over WNBA player Sophie Cunningham’s remarks about trans people. Since then, they’ve reported a sixfold increase in sales, and Sey has publicly aligned herself with Cunningham as well as appearing at anti-trans rallies at WNBA games. In the meantime, the company is in the middle of a lawsuit against the state of Colorado over their right to use discriminatory language.

If this all sounds familiar, that might be because another outspoken advocate for Nassar survivors, civil rights lawyer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, has joined Sey, modeling XX-XY apparel on social media. She also started a Change.org petition to pressure the WNBA into changing its eligibility policies.

As someone who loves gymnastics and who covered the Nassar scandal in great detail as it happened, I’m both embarrassed and disappointed that Sey and Hogshead-Makar have chosen to channel their energy in this way. At the peak of the abuse scandal, the news was horrifying, but people like Hogshead-Makar and Sey gave us hope that survivors would see justice. In a 2018 profile, Outside Magazine called Hogshead-Makar “a tireless advocate for young female athletes who need it most.” She supported survivors, calling for accountability and reform in a Huffington Post op-ed.

Now, Hogshead-Makar’s organization Champion Women openly advocates against including trans people in sports.

Sey, meanwhile, frames her company as the culmination of decades of work protecting women in sports. She uses her advocacy around abuse in gymnastics to build credibility. The Nassar scandal, according to Sey, was proof that she had been right all along about gymnastics’ abusive culture. In her Substack, she links abuse in gymnastics with some imaginary future where trans inclusion allows men to abuse women unchecked:

“Some bad men will use any available cover to gain proximity to female bodies. Nassar volunteered for decades of access to vulnerable girls … Today, policies allowing biological males into girls’ and women’s sports — without notice to competitors or parents — create new opportunities for bad men.”

The irony, of course, is that trans exclusionary policies are more likely to harm women and trans people than help them. Videos on the brand’s Instagram page show they’re going on the defense, supposedly “debunking” claims that policies designed to exclude trans people harm women by requiring genital exams. This isn’t part of the IOC’s new policy for the Olympics, but it is part of a ballot measure in Washington State. The IOC’s new sex testing policy, meanwhile, will likely harm women in other ways.

And Sey’s argument — that men will use inclusivity as a cover to invade women’s spaces and abuse them — shows just how ignorant she’s become. Nassar didn’t have to be trans to abuse hundreds of girls. He relied on tools that are still readily available to many cisgender men: his education, reputation and charming personality. Putting him away didn’t eliminate this privilege or the power that comes with it. Trans people, on the other hand, are subject to a level of scrutiny that is increasingly disproportionate to their impact.

Who actually benefits, then? Mother Jones reports that XX-XY earned $1 million in its first year. This year, as already mentioned, sales have gone up significantly. 

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More news

Changes to NCAA composition requirements were published this week. Bars, beam, and floor routines will now start at a 9.2, down from 9.4. Here’s a full breakdown courtesy of CollegeGymNews.

Eythora Thorsdottir is too injured to compete at worlds.

Simone Biles did tricks on a trampoline. Simone, please just tell us if you’re coming back. It’s just mean at this point.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dc4K_1VuD54

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Fall meet calendar

Szombathely Challenge Cup (Szombathely)

Sept. 18-20
Nominative roster includes: Rebeca Andrade, Flávia Saraiva, Lorrane Oliveira, Dulcy Caylor, Tatum Drusch, Emily Roper, Abigail Roper, Marta Pihan-Kulesza

Asian Games (Nagoya, Japan)

Sept. 19-Oct. 4
Qualifications, which will also serve as the all-around final, will be held September 22. The team final will happen on September 23, vault and bars the 24th, and beam and floor the 25th.

Paris Challenge Cup (Paris)

Sept. 26-27
Nominative roster includes: Shallon Olsen, Elena Colas, Lorette Charpy, Maïana Prat, Alia Leat, Abigail Martin, Ruby Evans, Sabrina Voinea, Leila Vasileva, Lila Richardson, Izzy Stassi

U.S. Worlds Trials

Sept. 31-Oct. 1
Roster

World Championships (Rotterdam)

Oct. 17-25
Qualifiers
Qualifications draw

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Five at the IX: Alice Kinsella

Alice Kinsella spoke to the BBC about coming back to competition mere moments after giving birth, and Elena Colas chatted with International Gymnast.

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Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer