Trans athlete wins tennis tournament after being banned from a women’s league
In March, Cammie Woodman was banned from a New York rec league, two week ago she snagged her first tourney win The post Trans athlete wins tennis tournament after being banned from a women’s league appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
In March, after Cammie Woodman won a match she was thrown out of a New York metro tennis women’s league because she is a trans woman.
On June 28-29, the self-named “Trans Tennis Princess” from Brooklyn completed a sweep to a crown at the Lincoln Terrace Open. Woodman raced through the tournament’s women’s division through four matches, giving up a mere two sets for the entire draw en route to her first open title.
She said it was a symbol of how far she’s come from being a self-described “queer kid who never played a sport” when she first took up the game.
“I had lost in the first round, um, the past two years competing in this tournament,” Woodman told Outsports. “It was a really big deal to me to get one win, let alone win the whole thing.
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“The years before, I had just not followed a plan on how to actually win matches, and so I was losing horribly because of my nerves. This year I had a plan that I’ve been working on all year to be able to get through difficult matches. I had the right people around me, all my friends were there and it was just a great environment for me to just do my best.”
For Cammie Woodman, this win is celebration but also a measure of vindication. Outsports readers first learned her name three months ago.
The 25-year-old was on the grid of the Brooklyn Tennis League, affiliated with the Tennis League Network. After winning her first match in the league, her opponent, a cisgender woman, filed a complaint because Woodman won the match.
What ensued was a series of emails that came directly from the head of Tennis League Network, Steven Chagnon, which included a suggestion asking if Woodman would move to a men’s league. Woodman was removed from the league and her money was refunded, along with a group of players who supported her.
Off the court, Woodman is fighting via a lawsuit filed in June. On the court, Woodman has been putting in workouts both before and after work five to six days a week.
The recent ugly experience only enhanced her spark to keep playing. That spark showed up on the Lincoln Terrace courts during the tournament win for this undeterred trans athlete.
“Just in life, there are days where you just don’t want to show up and be on court at all, and you just want to disappear,” she observed. “But, I realize the importance of visibility and I just decided I would show up and choose myself and that’s what I did for this tournament.”
The day after winning her tournament, she was at the practice court at 7am sharp and back on the grind.”
Her next tournament is this weekend in a competitive field featuring higher-level players. Woodman looks forward to the challenge and the chance to improve her game.
She also heads into tougher competition with a great deal of confidence and appreciation for how far she’s come as a player.
“I saw a video of me in 2023, when I was first taking lessons, and I think it’s just been a super long journey,” Woodman said. “It’s just a testament to how hard I’ve worked, because it definitely wasn’t talent or natural ability. I was probably the worst athlete you could imagine when I first started, so I’m really just excited to keep going.”
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The post Trans athlete wins tennis tournament after being banned from a women’s league appeared first on Outsports.
