Ex-Gymnast Turned CEO: Jennifer Sey Isn’t Backing Down From The Gender Debate In Women's Sports

Marathon star and new mom Natalie Daniels, known to fans as “Natty-ice," crossed a major finish line six months postpartum, but the race off the course is just beginning.

Daniels, a five-time marathon winner and fierce advocate for fairness in women’s sports, finished the grueling Boston Marathon in an incredible 2:50:04 this year, her 18th marathon overall, but behind the scenes, chaos was brewing.

Leading up to Boston, Daniels partnered with XX-XY Athletics and gave a series of interviews, where she spoke out about women deserving their own protected category in sport.

But things exploded after Olympian Nikki Hiltz, who identifies as non-binary and competes in the women’s category, posted a video many saw as a direct response to Natalie Daniels’ views.

Hiltz’s video set off a wave of harassment. Daniels’ own teammates allegedly leaked her location on Strava, a GPS running app, and plotted ways to track her during the race.

Just two days before the marathon, her club coach called with a brutal message, telling her not to wear the team singlet on race day.

Shocked but undeterred, Daniels laced up anyway, donning a XX-XY Athletics jersey instead, and ran for herself, for her infant son, and for women she says have been edged out of competition.

With fans yelling “Go Natty-ice!” from the sidelines, she crushed Boston's notorious course. But the celebrations didn’t last long.

After the race, Daniels was told she was being kicked out of her club. The reason? Alleged “hate speech." Daniels was given an ultimatum: apologize and stay silent about the issue, or leave. She refused to back down.

Now, she's partnering with XX-XY Athletics to start a new team: Team Women.

"I just want her to know we support her, and that you may feel that you've lost some friends and some community," Jennifer Sey, elite athlete and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, told The Blast exclusively. "But you have gained a bigger, stronger one and we're all cheering for you."

Sey explained that Daniels had been warned that taking a public stance might invite backlash, but no one anticipated the level of vitriol sparked by Hiltz’s viral post.

"I think the backlash was more intense than we'd anticipated because of Nikki Hiltz," Sey said. "Because she's pretty famous, you know, she's an Olympian and made headlines as the first non-binary Olympian. I thought it was all sort of silly because she's a woman who ran in women's, and that's not really a story at the end of the day."

While Sey said she supports free speech "100%," she didn’t hold back on her thoughts about Hiltz’s video, calling it “so incredibly condescending."

"This idea that [Daniels is] supposed to run just for fun and who cares if you're 901st over 902nd... I'm sorry, Nikki, you care about winning, and you care about placing. Why don't other women get to? Why doesn't this woman, who just had a baby six months ago, get to try to meet her goals?"

And make no mistake, Daniels didn’t just "participate." She finished near the top 100, not anywhere near 900th place. Sey emphasized, “She ran it in two hours and 50 minutes, six months postpartum.”

Sey, who has been fighting for female athletes for over two decades, isn't new to this kind of pushback.

“I’ve been standing up for female athletes for 20 years to train free from abuse. And that’s not an issue that has been solved yet,” she said. “However, I believe it is a pressing issue for women’s sports that they remain for females only.”

Sey emphasized how dangerous and discouraging this kind of cancellation can be. “What’s really important also is just trying to normalize standing up for something that should be so easy and basic. Women deserve their own sports and spaces. And yet, despite the fact that 79% of Americans agree with us, most remain very silent, frankly, because of what happened to Natalie.”

She called Daniels’ strength “inspiring” and hopes others will follow her lead.

“People look and say, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’ And if she has a community that swoops in to support her on social media, that silences the angry mob, then I’ll get that too.”

Sey knows the cost of speaking out all too well.

In 2008, she became the first gymnast to publicly expose abuse in gymnastics. She received threatening voicemails from USA Gymnastics officials and even had a reading event canceled in Philadelphia due to violent threats.

“I felt like... the more aggressively they’re coming after me, the more they’re hiding, the more invested they are in keeping something secret,” Sey said. “So I got louder and bolder because I wanted to protect children. And then of course, in 2016, the Larry Nassar case broke.”

She continued, “I knew a few months before that it was coming, but I didn’t know in 2008 when I wrote my book. And when I learned the details, I was like, my goodness, I was so right. I wish I hadn’t been. Because it wasn’t just the horrors of his crimes, but the cover-up on the part of USA Gymnastics, the FBI, and the US Olympic Committee. That’s disgusting and horrifying.”

Sey believes XX-XY’s mission isn’t just about sports, it’s about telling the truth.

“I hope we get to a place like the UK just got to — where there’s widespread understanding that there are two sexes, and men cannot become women,” she said. “Women deserve their own sports and spaces. Wear the t-shirt. Have the hard conversation.”

“Every time I wear our gear, I either get someone who leans in and whispers, ‘I agree with you,’ or someone who yells at me. But either way... I think we’re gonna get there. But we’re still a long way away.”

As for Natalie Daniels, she's not backing down, and with Team Women gearing up, it looks like her biggest race is just getting started.