Richards, Renée

Renée Richards was a U.S. trans woman tennis player who fought for the right to compete in women’s tennis in the 1970s. She successfully challenged the use of the chromosome test as the sole criterion for entry into the sport. With the legal victory, Richards participated in the 1977 U.S. Open and lost in the first round. She continued playing on the women’s circuit until 1981. Upon retirement, Richards returned to her ophthalmology practice and remained out of the headlines until the early 2000s, when she criticized the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) trans policy. Richards’s legal battle not only served as a predecessor for later trans policies, but her legacy demonstrates the questions that surface when trans athletes participate in sex-segregated sport.

Richards was born on ...