Sports
Life after the ‘Chinese Sports Machine’
Champion swimmer Abi Liu finds rewarding new chapter as coach, wife
Abi Liu (Washington Blade photo by Kevin Majoros)
For years, Abi Liu was out, but not out. In her role as the head coach of 150 age group swimmers at Peak Swimming in San Jose, Calif., she was and still is, working with youth. In addition to the swim team, she is also running two swim schools, Saratoga Star Aquatics and Milpitas Star Aquatics with 4,500 students weekly.
The kids always seemed to pick up on things, but she was guarded around the parents. In 2013, Liu was falling in love and when her future wife came to see her at work, she couldn’t hold back anymore.
“That moment was really the turning point,” says Liu. “When KR arrived at the pool, I ran out and we hugged and kissed. The parents saw it and just smiled.”
Still, with her career focused on youth swimmers, Liu hadn’t had much interaction with out adult athletes. That all changed in April when she was asked to coach 40 LGBT masters swimmers at a training camp in Fort Lauderdale hosted by Team New York Aquatics. She wasn’t sure what she was walking into, but found a pleasant surprise when she arrived.
“It was like I returned to the mother ship,” Liu says. “I found a like-minded community that felt like my home team. I was even cracking dirty jokes.”
Liu was raised in Wenzhou, China and started swimming at age eight. In 1989 at age 13, she captured a title at the Chinese Junior National Championships and was recruited to the Chinese National Team. She would spend the next eight years of her life inside of what is commonly referred to as the Chinese Sports Machine.
“My parents wanted me to stay home and finish school, but this was my dream come true,” says Liu. “Twenty family members came to see me off on the bus and there were a lot of tears.”
As a national team member, Liu lived in a dorm with other athletes in Beijing, ate in the dorm and wore a uniform with the Chinese national emblem. Her dorm mates included divers, ping pong players and weightlifters.
“It was a very controlled environment where you work, live and socialize with other athletes. The mental burnout had to be kept in check,” Liu says. “I would choose the same path if I had it to do over again. It was a great life experience.”
During her career, Liu was a Chinese national record holder in the 200-meter backstroke, two-time Chinese national champion, gold medalist at the FINA World Cup, silver medalist at the Asia Games and bronze medalist at the FINA World Championships.
Home visits with her family in Wenzhou were limited to 15 days per year and in her dorm, 60 athletes per floor shared one phone to call home. Her new family unit became her teammates.
As for being a gay athlete, Liu says that it was not discussed.
“Nobody talked about sexuality, but having no parental supervision allowed me to be free to do whatever I wanted,” says Liu. “It was a dorm after all.”
When she finished her swimming career with the national team, she was contacted by a sports reporter about colleges in the United States that were giving out full swimming scholarships. She was granted a green card for people with special abilities and began swimming for the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997.
Liu left collegiate swimming after two years and found a coaching position in the Bay Area. She returned to school at San Jose State University and earned a degree in Kinesiology and Biomechanics.
In 2010, a group of investors approached her to start a new swim school in the area. Liu agreed to the offer and negotiated to have a swim team added as well.
“All those years of swim training was a physical experience. What I learned at school was a scientific experience,” Liu says. “It gave me the ability to explain why, and to educate my swimmers with techniques and information that stays with them.”
Liu’s relationship with KR evolved to a point where it was time to come out to her parents who reside in both Vancouver and Wenzhou. The news didn’t go over well and there was no communication with them for more than two years.
Abi Liu and KR Liu were married on Aug. 8, 2015, in Maui and returned to the Bay Area for a celebration. One of Liu’s brothers attended the party and was surprised to see all the people there supporting the newlyweds. The news spread back to her family and her dad reached out and asked them to come to Vancouver.
In Chinese societies, there is a custom of handing out red envelopes on special occasions. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect when we were heading to Vancouver,” says Liu. “When we arrived, my parents came out and started hugging us. My Grandma handed us a red envelope.”
These days, the Liu family is happily reattached and communicate on a regular basis. Abi Liu’s coaching career has soared and she is a two-time Pacific Swimming coach of the year.
She is also serving as an ambassador for USA Swimming’s LGBT Cultural Inclusion Group. The outreach program has evolved into diversity camps and Liu recently coached at a camp in Colorado Springs.
“I am so fortunate that my parents came around and that I have a loving wife,” Liu says. “I feel so much lighter and open now. Everything has lifted and I am 100% myself. I want others like me to know that they are never alone.”
Sports
English soccer bans transgender women from women’s teams
British Supreme Court last month ruled legal definition of woman limited to ‘biological women’
The organization that governs English soccer on Thursday announced it will no longer allow transgender women to play on women’s teams.
The British Supreme Court on April 16 ruled the legal definition of a woman is limited to “biological women” and does not include trans women. The Football Association’s announcement, which cites the ruling, notes its new policy will take effect on June 1.
“As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and FIFA,” said the Football Association in a statement that announced the policy change. “Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.”
“This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary,” added the Football Association.
The Football Association also acknowledged the new policy “will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify.”
“We are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” it said.
The Football Association told the BBC there were “fewer than 30 transgender women registered among millions of amateur players” and there are “no registered transgender women in the professional game” in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Football Association, which governs soccer in Scotland, is expected to also ban trans women from women’s teams.
FIFA has announced Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, despite concerns over its human rights record that includes the death penalty for homosexuality.
The Associated Press reported FIFA confirmed the decision on Dec. 18. The AP noted Saudi Arabia is the only country that bid to host the 2034 World Cup.
“This is a historic moment for Saudi Arabia and a dream come true for all our 32 million people who simply love the game,” said Sport Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al- Faisal, who is also president of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, in a statement the Saudi Press Agency posted to its website.
Saudi Arabia is among the handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death.
A U.S. intelligence report concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “likely approved” the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. A federal judge in 2022 dismissed a lawsuit against Prince Mohammed after the Biden-Harris administration said he was immune to the lawsuit because he is the country’s prime minister.
Human rights activists have also criticized the Saudi government over the treatment of women, migrant workers, and other groups in the country.
“No one should be surprised by this,” Cyd Zeigler, Jr., co-founder of Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports website, told the Washington Blade in an email after FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. “FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, and many other world governing bodies routinely turn to authoritarian countries with terrible human-rights records to host major sporting events. There are simply few other countries willing to spend the billions of dollars it takes to build the needed infrastructure.”
Peter Tatchell, a long-time LGBTQ activist from the U.K. who is director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, in a statement described FIFA’s decision as “a betrayal of the values that football should stand for: Inclusivity, fairness, and respect for human rights.”
“This is not about football; it’s about sportswashing,” said Tatchell. “The Saudi regime is using the World Cup to launder its international image and distract from its brutal abuses. By granting them this platform, FIFA is complicit in whitewashing their crimes.”
Qatar, which borders Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2022 World Cup.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Qatar.
“Saudi Arabia was the only country to bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup,” said Zeigler. “So, until FIFA, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and other governing bodies ban major human-rights violators from hosting, we’ll continue to see events like this in Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, and other countries with terrible LGBTQ rights issues.”
The Blade has reached out to FIFA and the Saudi government for comment.
Sports
Controversy grows over member of Calif. university’s women’s volleyball team
Coach suspended, NCAA sued, more rivals forfeit
San Jose State University’s women volleyball team has collected yet another W by forfeit — its seventh so far this season — as controversy swirls around one player on its roster. She’s one of the seniors, and she has been dragged in the media by her own co-captain, who outed her as transgender.
The Washington Blade is not naming this student athlete since neither she nor the school have confirmed or even commented on her gender identity.
SJSU visited San Diego last weekend for a match before the Aztecs’ biggest home crowd of the season — including protesters waving “Save Women’s Sports” banners and booing one player on the Spartans team in particular: The woman who is reported to be trans.
Security was tight, with metal detectors and extra guards and police officers present. Video posted to YouTube by a right-wing sports media site — which names the player — shows an angry fan arguing with security about his First Amendment rights.
Video recorded during Nov. 9’s game shows a player for San Diego was injured following a spike by the player rumored to be trans, and had to be helped off the court. However, the video clearly shows that player was injured by landing poorly on one foot, not as a result of the spike.
The Aztecs defeated the Spartans 3-1, but San Jose has still punched its ticket to the conference finals, thanks to its record number of forfeits.
Wyoming was set to visit SJSU Thursday, but for the second time is joining other universities that have forfeited games against the Spartans, all without providing a reason. Boise State announced it will forfeit an upcoming match set for Nov. 21, its second forfeit against SJSU.
In September, the Spartans’ co-captain, senior Brooke Slusser, outed her own teammate, the player at the center of this controversy, in joining a federal lawsuit against the NCAA spearheaded by anti-trans inclusion activist and former college athlete Riley Gaines.
Slusser said in the lawsuit and in subsequent interviews that the player in question shouldn’t be on her team. The suit claims the NCAA’s policy on trans athletes violates Title IX by allowing “men” to compete in women’s sports and use women’s locker rooms where they display “full male genitalia.”
The NCAA policy for trans athletes participating in women’s volleyball aligns with that of USA Volleyball, which requires trans female athletes to suppress their testosterone below 10 nmol/L for a period of one year before competition. That is also how the NCAA determines eligibility. SJSU has stated repeatedly that all its players are eligible.
The lawsuit also asks the NCAA to revoke any titles or records won by trans female athletes in women’s competitions, which seems to be specifically aimed at stripping out trans NCAA champions Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer of their titles in swimming and track and field, respectively.
Prior to this season, the player rumored to be trans did not attract any attention other than being a successful starter, like Slusser. But now that she is in the media spotlight, Slusser has come forward to tell right wing media, including Megyn Kelly, why she feels another woman two inches taller than she is poses a danger.
“I don’t feel safe,” Slusser said on “The Megyn Kelly Show” last month. “I’ve gone to my coaches and said I refuse to play against [her] … It’s not safe.”
In the video, both Kelly and Slusser refer to the player as “him” and a “man,” and name her.
Now comes another twist: San Jose State University suspended associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose with pay, indefinitely, after she filed a Title IX complaint against SJSU. She claims the player Slusser identified as trans conspired with an opponent to help the team lose a match and injure Slusser. Batie-Smoose named the player in question in her complaint and on Sept. 23, joined the same lawsuit that Slusser is now a part of.
“Safety is being taken away from women,” Batie-Smoose told Fox News. “Fair play is taken away from women. We need more and more people to do this and fight this fight because women’s sports, as we know it right now will be forever changed.”
Media reporting on the suspension, including Fox News, continue to name the athlete in question, with some also reporting what they say is the athlete’s birth name.
San Jose State released a statement following the suspension of Batie-Smoose: “The associate head coach of the San Jose State University women’s volleyball team is not with the team at this time, and we will not provide further information on this matter,” the team said.
SJSU Coach Todd Kress told ESPN that reports saying that any member of the Spartans colluded with their opponent are “littered with lies.”
The Spartans are currently among the top six finishers in the Mountain West Conference that will qualify to compete in the conference tournament scheduled for Nov. 27-30.
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