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While the WNBA faces loud questioning about its gender eligibility guidelines, an upstart rival women’s basketball league is slamming them for their handling of the issue—and aims to prevent ending up in the same situation.
Alana Beard, a former WNBA star and the cofounder of the planned global basketball league Project B, told Front Office Sports she’s disappointed in WNBA leadership for not taking a stand as non-basketball narratives dominate its discourse.
“Where’s the accountability, the integrity, the intentionality?” said Beard, who is also the league’s chief basketball officer. “All of it is needed right now, in what could become one of the most defining moments in the history of the sport.”
Beard added that Project B, which says it will launch in January, will focus on “creating joy and delivering the highest quality of basketball.” Project B has signed several WNBA stars, including Nneka Ogwumike, Jonquel Jones, and Sophie Cunningham.
Cunningham’s comments in an ESPN profile published in late July have put an increased focus on the WNBA’s eligibility requirements. The Indiana Fever guard said she wants “to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Those comments have met with support from groups seeking to “protect women’s sports,” but also resistance from trans rights activists as well as some WNBA players and coaches.
The WNBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Getting Ahead of the Gender Eligibility Issue
Project B told FOS that as an international league, it will follow International Olympic Committee and FIBA gender eligibility guidelines, saying the decision is meant to provide “consistency and confidence for players and stakeholders.”
In March, the IOC announced a new policy effectively banning transgender women from competing in female categories at the Olympics. The IOC explained the policy “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category.”
FIBA announced in April it would follow the IOC’s policy, though it is still “collecting basketball-specific data and transgender-related evidence to further evaluate the matter.” The federation said it is not “entertaining any transgender eligibility requests” while the review is ongoing, which is until the start of 2027.
On Friday, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo to teams saying the topic of transgender participation will be discussed during an upcoming meeting with team executives this week. She called it a “complex and nuanced” topic that the league will discuss with stakeholders in the “weeks and months ahead.”
That same day, the WNBPA released a statement denouncing hate against all, “including transgender people.” Ogwumike is the president of the WNBPA.
The WNBA’s eligibility rules are collectively bargained, though there is just one line in the new CBA surrounding eligibility based on gender, which reads: “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” It does not provide information on identity or gender assigned at birth, though there has been no transgender player assigned male at birth that has ever played in the WNBA.
Project B told FOS its players are aware that the league will follow the gender eligibility guidelines of the IOC and FIBA.
Project B has announced 15 players, many of whom are international. More announcements are expected, including from countries like Korea, Serbia, and Belgium. (Project B has not answered questions from FOS about its league size, though it originally expected to build a 66-player women’s league, and is still expected to launch a men’s league.)
IOC Reinstituted Genetic Sex Testing This Year
The league would not say whether it will require its women’s players to undergo a genetic sex test to be deemed eligible to participate.
The IOC’s new policy requires female athletes to take a one-time genetic sex test to determine the presence of the SRY gene. A positive test will result in an athlete’s ban from female sports categories, barring rare exceptions.
FIBA said it is “awaiting further guidance from the IOC on the practical, legal, and operational aspects of implementation.” FIBA has not explicitly said it will do genetic sex testing, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There are questions about the use of the SRY gene test in women’s athletics, including from Andrew Sinclair, the geneticist who discovered the SRY gene in 1990, who argued last year that using the test is “misguided” and “overly simplistic.”
“Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present,” Sinclair wrote. “It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body.”
The IOC’s decision to add genetic sex testing has already set a precedent that other leagues are starting to follow.
Last month, the WTA Tour announced that players would be required to take a genetic sex test, with star Jessica Pegula revealing that testing is expected to begin this week at the Cincinnati Open. A source told FOS that the WTA’s policies were in response, in part, to the IOC’s latest policy update.
