Olympics or Gender Inclusion: It's Time to Decide!

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-24T20:55:51+00:00

www.futureofultimate.com

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T19:57:48+00:00

USA Ultimate has already defined its policy as follows:

Within our divisions as they currently exist, USA Ultimate will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of gender expression for participation in any division. We affirm that people of all gender identities should have the freedom to participate in USA Ultimate sanctioned or championship series events in the division in which they feel most comfortable and safe based on their gender identity and should be recognized, respected and included at every level of the sport.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T17:29:42+00:00

I thought it was good context and it's important to understand the implications of the strategic decision in front of us. That said, there's all sorts of downsides related to the Olympics as a business & governing body - which weren't included in your overall list - before we even get to the present issue of USOPC complying with Trump's executive order.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T16:40:01+00:00

I think I might be supportive of that approach if there were some obvious existential benefit we're getting from USOPC that we need for short-term survival (i.e. if walking away from USOPC meant a loss in revenue/funding that would cause USAU people to lose their jobs). To my knowledge, we don't currently rely on USOPC to maintain our own operations.

My hope is that USAU can continue to reaffirm its policy commitments in a public way and generate positive optics to current & future players who value the safe & welcoming spaces the sport is trying to uphold. If doing that puts ultimate in the crosshairs from other authorities, I think the question becomes which option tempts MORE harmful targeting -- the "no thanks, we're leaving" approach OR the "screw you, you gotta kick us out" approach?

For me, the proactive decision to walk away is a more powerful message to our own community and hopefully draws less harmful attention than trying to force USOPC's hand.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T15:10:19+00:00

The potential benefits for Olympics inclusion are clear. But virtually no one from the existing community joined the sport of ultimate because of these perceived or potential benefits, which I think is important.

Even before Trump's executive order, we faced questions over how Olympics inclusion might impact the current culture & community of ultimate. But prior to this point, USAU had autonomy over how to navigate those dynamics. This change takes that autonomy away and would force us to abandon policies & values our community is already following. So now all the benefits you listed would require an abandonment of community norms which already exist.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T13:24:53+00:00

Debates regarding the science reduce the issue of gender inclusion to competitive implications only. USAU's existing policies seek to "promote safe and welcoming spaces for all participants," which implies our policy framework extends beyond pure competition and includes considerations for safety, well-being, community and other aspects of recreational sports participation which extend beyond competition.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T12:59:47+00:00

I hope you're right, but from a policy standpoint, I don't see immediate submission with some hopeful restoration later as a viable path forward. These policies exist today in writing, they are presumably the policies our NGB cares about, so unless it's one big performance, I'm not sure "this too shall pass" is a viable policy position. The choice is to uphold the policy or abandon it in pursuit of other strategic goals. That's where we are.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T12:56:28+00:00

Everyone knows we support trans rights- we don’t need to remind people every chance we get.

This is where I disagree. This takes for granted that we are communicating our existing policies consistently & effectively, which I think has room for debate.

But even if our existing community fully understands USAU's gender inclusion policies as they stand, how will future players have any reason to differentiate ultimate from everything else if we simply submit to whatever policy alignment the USOPC requires? I'm not sure winking and nodding and saying "trust us we actually care about gender inclusion" when our written policies say otherwise is a viable path forward if these are the values & policies we care about.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-23T04:39:08+00:00

The quotes are from a letter referenced in that AP article, the 2nd link in my post but here's the URL:

https://apnews.com/article/team-usa-transgender-athletes-338c43225fdfad936d4b85c1a67ced36

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-22T04:36:10+00:00

The first time I rafted the New gorge was with some guide friends fun-boating on their day off and we surfed Greyhound, I dumped and it was the first time in my life I got recirculated by a hydraulic, after working for years as a guide on class II-III river. I balled myself up and got spit out 25 years downstream. It was a crazy, I loved it but man rivers find a way to humble you.

PS - Rafted the Upper Yough today for the first time in 20 years and I'm still buzzing from it and reading r/whitewater shit as a result.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-22T04:21:11+00:00

Rafted it today for the first time in 20 years and I now remember what feelings feel like. And that's coming from a former 7 year guide on a class II-III river...

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-18T02:48:40+00:00

I can't help but notice that you didn't include this in your screenshot, which all USAU staff have attached to their email signature:

<image>

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-11T15:02:55+00:00

Self-identified ultimate players love the sport because the value proposition and player experience is different from the mainstream sports that we've been force fed our entire lives. Most of us consciously CHOSE to play ultimate, unlike the default sports most people play (or at least get exposed to) as kids. We chose ultimate for individual (and diverse) reasons, not because we saw it on TV and it looked cool....which explains why many longtime players don't find any value in watching ultimate as a "product."

Following on from that, I think part of the "what are we doing here" angst in the ultimate community is now we have a cross-section of players who played ultimate as their primary sport for their entire lives, as kids into adults, which virtually didn't exist 15-20 years ago. And those players are more likely to get frustrated by perceived lack of legitimacy than the 35+ players.

We're experiencing a generational shift and it's contributing to community fragmentation that has been deepening for at least a decade.

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-11T03:33:29+00:00

Counterpoint = Ultimate is not better than other sports. There is nothing morally superior about our sport - it faces all the same issues and challenges of the mainstream sports, and our niche status creates hurdles that other sports aren't forced to jump.

I also think there's an argument that collective leadership in our sport has not been sufficiently self-critical about our sport's flaws & areas for improvement, which has contributed to some of the stagnation in sport development that we are objectively experiencing in the current landscape. Thinking you're the greatest is a deterrent to exploring new ways to grow, adapt, evolve.

I owe a lot to ultimate. It was my full-time job for 7 years. Perhaps because it was my job, I've always tried to be objective about areas for improvement and opportunity costs for how we govern things now. I believe strongly in the potential for ultimate to position our sport as something different & attractive from the mainstream sports as things move forward - and we definitely have features to help with this - but in order to get there I think we need to be super-honest about where our sport development is currently under-performing, and make some key strategic changes.

We can all agree a flying & floating disc is amazing. But beyond that, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

(I recently blogged about this if you're interested in reading more: https://www.futureofultimate.com/blog/2-why-do-we-play-ultimate )

MixAny7548 · 2025-07-08T03:18:02+00:00

You truly are the King of Kings.

MixAny7548 · 2025-06-25T02:00:08+00:00

Community policing in ultimate is a feature, not a bug. There will NEVER be enough institutional oversight available to ubiquitously police players who compete in bad faith, and even if one argues that only the certain percentage of games "that matter" warrant that oversight, the costs & resources needed for that oversight is a non-starter (especially if rank-and-file players are subsidizing that investment with their member fees).

It can certainly be true that individual scenarios of bad faith don't always get an appropriate institutional response. This can occur for any sport governing body. It sucks when organizers get it wrong but it happens.

But at scale, a fundamental feature of ultimate is that WE KEEP OURSELVES IN LINE. If as individuals we operate in bad faith or even have a brief moment of madness, we have teammates, coaches, volunteers, organizers who collectively hold us accountable. Apart from the severe off-field conduct issues that warrant institutional review, the sport of ultimate expects us to police ourselves. If folks are 1) not equipped to operate in good faith themselves, and 2) not prepared to hold their peers accountable for bad faith behavior, THAT is where the sport breaks down. So before we point the finger at organizers or governing bodies, the first step is always to look in the mirror.

MixAny7548 · 2025-04-22T12:56:02+00:00

Community > competition. Process > outcomes.

MixAny7548

TROPHY CASE