Oberlin coach stood up for women in sports. Then faced public shaming from her college.

In March 2022, Kim Russell watched as Penn swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500-yard women’s freestyle, becoming the first transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA championship.

Russell, the head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College and an athlete herself, felt it was unfair to the other athletes, who had worked so hard to be there. Thomas had competed on the men’s team in prior years.

So when a friend posted on Instagram in support of swimmer Emma Weyant, who lost first place to Thomas, Russell shared the post on her personal page.

That’s when the coach’s problems began.

A student-athlete saw the post and sent it to Oberlin’s athletic director.

The next day, Russell said, she sat in the athletic director’s office, getting chastised for taking a stand on what she saw as the integrity of women’s sports. That began a series of meetings with administrators and student-athletes on Russell’s team.

Russell said she felt she was getting “burned at the stake,” subjected to public humiliation for sharing her point of view.

She was angry and hurt.

Then in May, once the lacrosse season was over, Russell received a letter from the athletic director, saying she must change her behavior “immediately.” Yet, Russell said, she was not informed of a college policy that she had violated or what she had specifically done wrong.

‘This is about what is going on everywhere’

Russell still has a job – for now. She knows that going public with her story (which she’s doing for the first time) could put the work she loves in jeopardy. But she believes it’s worth the risk.

“This isn't about what's happened to me,” Russell said. “This is about what is going on everywhere.”

She is troubled by what she sees as a trend to silence women’s voices on an important issue that directly affects women. That’s why she decided to reach out to the Independent Women’s Forum: The group is releasing a video Tuesday sharing Russell's story.

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“As a coach and lifelong athlete herself, Russell’s voice is critical to this growing movement to restore common sense in an otherwise chaotic world,” said Andrea Mew, Independent Women's Forum storytelling coordinator.

Andrea Simakis, director of media relations at Oberlin, said that the college does not generally comment on matters involving individual employees, but that “we counsel all Oberlin faculty and staff to be mindful when using social media.”

‘Fight for girls all day long’

Debates about transgender athletes' participation in girls’ and women’s sports have become a flashpoint in legislatures around the country, and even on the presidential campaign trail. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, for instance, spoke about the issue at the first Republican presidential debate last week in Milwaukee.

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“I will always say, I'm going to fight for girls all day long, because strong girls become strong women,” Haley said. “Strong women become strong leaders. And biological boys don't belong in the locker rooms of any of our girls.”

On the other side of the issue, President Joe Biden’s administration is rewriting Title IX rules governing gender identity and who should be allowed to play on athletic teams.

Essentially, Biden wants individual athletes to decide which team or locker room is right for them, and schools that take federal funding would have to comply. Those new rules could come by October.

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Women athletes and advocates, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and journalists like ESPN's Samantha Ponder, have been speaking out, saying the changes would be contradictory to the purpose of Title IX, which was passed in 1972 to provide women and girls more opportunities in sports.

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‘Afraid to be canceled’

Until now, not many female coaches have spoken openly on this topic – perhaps out of fear of the repercussions for doing so. Russell hopes to give others the confidence to speak out, particularly feminists who fought so hard for the rights women have today. Russell, 56, doesn’t want to see those rights eroded.

“I know there are many more who do support me that are afraid to lose their job, who don't want to speak up because of the wrath that will come and right now, men especially are not speaking up because they'll get just hammered,” Russell said.

When women do express their concerns, it has led to change. For instance, after Thomas’ NCAA victory last year and the uproar that ensued, the group that governs elite swimming races worldwide announced it would place restrictions on transgender athlete eligibility. This month, it announced an “open category” for transgender swimmers.

“Right now I feel like women are afraid to speak up for women because they're afraid to be canceled and afraid to be looked at as a part of a hate group when this is not about hate,” Russell said.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques 

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Are transgender rights and women's sports in conflict? Coach says yes