Alicia Paans, formerly known as Johnny Paans, will again play on the University of Michigan female water polo team in the championships.
Paans is also 31. He’s a graduate student at the school and originally from The Netherlands.
Paans is expected to compete on the University of Michigan’s Women’s Club Water Polo team. The club’s official Instagram account recently named Paans as “player of the week,” boasting that he is also a state chess champion in the women’s category, having won second place at the Michigan Chess Association women’s open in 2022.Paans also competed on the University of Michigan team in 2023, during which time they won the national women’s title against the University of California-Santa Barbara. In the same competition, Paans was noted to have scored goals in a 17 to 5 defeat against the University of Virginia, and in a 17 to 6 defeat against the University of Washington.
Yes, Paans uses “the female locker rooms and facilities when he competes.”
The Collegiate Water Polo Association allows males to participate on female teams.
The association brags that it “is committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable sports environment for all those who wish to participate.”
The association also has the nerve to think its guidelines ensure “fairness, respect, and equal opportunities for all.”
Make it stop.
This part REALLY infuriates me. REDUXX revealed Paans volunteers for a “hotline specialized in topics relating to female health and pregnancy.”
Males cannot counsel a female on female health or pregnancy unless he is an OB-GYN with medical experience.
Jennifer, the mother of a water polo athlete who competed at the national championship with Paans, told REDUXX she could tell he was a male immediately.
No one alerted the other teams that the University of Michigan had a male on the female team:
Jennifer says she had been distressed by the thought that her daughter might have been forced to participate against a male, and was “relieved” when the match-up did not come to fruition.“None of these women were initially aware a man had been allowed to play,” Jennifer noted. “Many of the player’s on my daughter’s team were almost in shock at the situation, and spoke to one another about discomfort with it. But to my knowledge, no one spoke to the organizers of the tournament. They felt that nothing would be done given that it was allowed based on [CWPA] policy.”
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