When the Michigan Wolverines participate in 2024 National Collegiate Water Polo Championships this weekend, they are expected to be joined by Alicia Paans, a transgender woman who has competed on the Michigan women’s water polo club team for the past two seasons.
The Wolverines are set to take on Texas State in their first game at the event which will be held from May 3 to 5 at Texas A&M University. Michigan is one of 16 teams that will be competing for the national title.
According to a report from Reduxx, this will actually be the second time that Paans has competed at the event as she helped lead the Wolverines to the title last season, as well.
“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,” Amy Hamm wrote for Reduxx this week.
Back in January, the Collegiate Water Polo Association released a policy that explicitly allows transgender women to compete in the women’s championship.
“Transgender athletes who identify as female are eligible to compete in both the Co-ed League and the Women’s League,” the policy reads.
It’s worth noting that Paan competes for the club team and not the varsity team at Michigan.
[Reduxx]
