Nike Won't Say If It Is Funding Child Transgender Athletes Study, But Evidence Suggests It Is

The New York Times published more than 10,000 words about former San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming over the weekend. Fleming is a biological male who identifies as a woman, who competed on the women's team and who helped make the Spartans one of the top teams in their conference. 

Buried deep in the story was a single paragraph that should raise some eyebrows. The author mentions Joanna Harper, a biological male who identifies as a woman and purportedly studies transgender athletes. It's important to note that Harper played an advisory role in the 2015 Olympics transgender decision allowing males to compete in women's Olympic events with testosterone suppression.

But that's not the interesting part. 

"Harper is currently helping to lead an ambitious study of trans adolescents that measures their results on a 10-step fitness test before they start hormone therapy and then, after they have begun to medically transition, every six months for five years," the NYT story reads. 

It continues, "But, she told me when we talked in February, ‘the current climate makes the study somewhat uncertain.’ I assumed she was referring to the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health research grants, but she said money was not a problem: The study is being funded by Nike. The problem was Trump’s separate order targeting medical care for transgender youth. ‘If we can’t perform gender-affirming care,’ she explained, ‘then we can’t bring people into the study.’" 

Wait, "the study is being funded by Nike?" Why is a sports apparel company allegedly funding research that focuses on children and young teenagers taking potentially life-altering medications simply to try and prove that males should be allowed in girls' and women's sports? Basic common sense tells us they shouldn't.

Although the company has seemingly tried to keep it quiet, Nike appears to be helping fund a study on transgender youth athletes as young as 12 years old.

(Getty Images)

Unfortunately, Nike won't answer this question. OutKick has attempted to reach the company several times, and they have not responded. OutKick spoke with sources who had also tried to ask Nike about the study, to no avail. 

In addition, the company has an entire page on its website – titled "No Pride, No Sport" – dedicated to gender ideology causes. Here's what the mission statement reads: "Nike is on a mission to make sport available to everyone, everywhere. We’re continuing our commitment to helping shape a strong culture of LGBTQIA+ belonging and visibility in sport. We’re working to expand sport for the next generation through community grants, athlete partnerships, impactful storytelling, and products that celebrate the full spectrum of LGBTQIA+ expression. Because sport is better when all athletes are free to play as themselves." 

On this page, Nike lists many of the different ways that the company is pushing the ideas of the radical left-wing. This includes partnering with an organization called "The GenderCool Project," which is an "educational campaign sharing powerful, impactful stories about trans and non-binary youth in sport." 

There's also the organization "Not a Phase," which is a "trans-led grassroots movement working to uplift and improve the lives of trans and nonbinary adults through education, funding, and community project initiatives." 

The one area that's conspicuously absent is the study mentioned in the New York Times article, the one that Nike is reportedly helping to fund. The study, led by Kathryn Ackerman of Boston Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, also includes Joanna Harper and several other researchers. 

Kathryn Ackerman is the Principal Investigator of a study about young transgender athletes, and she claims Nike is helping fund the research. 

(Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Sarah Barker, author of the Substack The Female Category, did a deep-dive into the study itself and the other alleged financial contributors back in October. 

While Nike has not confirmed their financial contribution to the study, Ackerman has said on several occasions that the company is, indeed, providing them with money. 

During a seminar in 2023, Ackerman stated, "Recently, we got some money from Nike, who wanted to study this more… they wanted to look at transgender folks who are going through the transition younger. So, if we are talking about athletes who are pausing puberty and then doing gender-affirming care and cross-hormonal treatment, what happens to them over time." 

Ackerman made it sound like Nike approached her, not the other way around. Again, why? Why is Nike so invested in seeing what happens to pre-pubescent children when they are given potentially harmful and life-altering medications, hormones and surgeries? 

This is a company that constantly preaches about women's sports, and how dedicated it is to supporting women, yet they are allegedly helping to fund a study to see just how much medication male children need to "fairly" compete in women's sports? 

While Ackerman and Harper have both publicly noted Nike's financial interest in the study, during a conference in 2024, Harper discussed the methods of the study but did not disclose Nike providing funding. According to a source, this was very strange. 

"Nothing was stated about Nike… in the presentation; research presentations should always disclose project funders at the end of a slide show. It is not normal for a scientific presentation to exclude funding sources," the source told OutKick. 

Joanna Harper, a biological male who "identifies" as a woman, is one of the researchers on a study about young transgender athletes, and she claims Nike is helping fund the research. 

(Tom Hauck/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

So, what is going on here? Well, that's unclear because Nike doesn't seem interested in disclosing its role, if any, in the research. However, allegedly funding a researcher who is a "transgender activist" who then hired a "transgender" PhD to help with the study, makes it seem pretty clear what result they hope to achieve. 

It appears they want a study that says if doctors stop young males from going through puberty – with pharmaceutical intervention – and "transition" them as early as possible, there's no reason they shouldn't be allowed to compete in girls' and women's sports. And, if that study is produced, what is the endgame? To have as many little boys as possible put on puberty-blockers and hormones in a rush to head off puberty? 

How is it possible that more people don't realize how insane that sounds? If this is true, shame on those researchers and shame on Nike. The company would be participating in experiments on kids that our society should qualify as child abuse. Truly disgusting.