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Programming note: Today marks my last day at the helm of Crash Course. It has been wonderful writing for and hearing from Salon’s most dedicated readers. I’ll be handing the reins over to Salon National Affairs Editor Troy Farah. I look forward to seeing what he does with it! - Alex Galbraith

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With the notable exception of Bobby, Indiana doesn’t go in for knights. 

By the time of the state’s founding, the last crusade was nearly 600 years in the rearview. It’s a liminal state, the place you pass through between scruffy Cleveland and business-like Chicago, with little to inspire romantic odes to home. Its glacial flatness doesn’t lend itself to impressive scenes like a man on horseback silhouetted against the sunset. It’s a little surprising, then, that Sophie Cunningham has let the state turn her into both Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. 

As might be expected, the reserve for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever took on the squire role first. She comes off the bench for the latter-day contenders, spelling for star Caitlin Clark and averaging a respectful 8 points per game. When then-Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon poked Clark in the eye in 2025, Cunningham avenged the perceived slight with a headlock on a later play. Her reputation as Clark’s right-hand and enforcer spread along with the viral clip.

The right-wing grievance machine has tried to make Clark their Great White Hope since her days at Iowa. Clark, an inveterate trash-talker and hyper-competitive athlete, has seemed completely uninterested in courting controversy away from the hardwood. She’s avoided joining any conservative crusades and done little to stoke the support of her most MAGA fans. Luckily for conservative media, Cunningham heard the call, and last month she picked up the lance and charged headlong at a windmill. 

Cunningham told ESPN that she was concerned about the idea of trans women participating in women’s sports, and right-wing media pounced. In the tall, slight and blonde Cunningham, they had their noble hero fighting against the tides of modernity in service of some older ideal. As politicians like Ted Cruz rushed to applaud her, and Clark moved to distance herself, Cunningham doubled down.

"I said what I said,” she told reporters the day after her ESPN profile published. “I think it's kind of common sense."

It didn’t matter at all to Cunnigham’s supporters that there was nothing to fight. Transgender people are a remarkably small portion of the population. The portion of them who chose to participate in organized sports is even smaller still. Frequently, when states pass laws barring transgender athletes from competition, the result can feel overwhelmingly personal to those affected, since the number of people excluded in a given state can be counted without having to take your shoes off. The West Virginia law that worked its way up to the Supreme Court this year applied to exactly one teenager. 

Cunningham’s fears are a fabrication. She’s defending a redoubt entirely within her own mind. There are no trans athletes competing in the top-tier of any major professional sport in the United States. Cunningham proclaims herself as a warrior for “common sense” by fighting off a scourge that no one can see. For conservatives, the non-existence of the supposed problem doesn’t matter. They’re ready to turn every remaining Fever game into a sideshow for their culture war. Whether the Fever win or lose, they’ll be there to cheer as Cunningham slams into the windmill’s sail.

What do you think? Do top athletes need to have an opinion on transgender participation in sports? Sound off in the comments.

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