Trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming has been in the headlines again this week after Boise State lost its third game of the season against San Jose State.

Several opponents have refused to play San Jose State’s women’s volleyball team in 2024 because of concerns about Fleming, who is on the Spartans’ roster despite being biologically male.

And after already losing two games to them this season, Boise State did it again when matched up with SJSU in the semifinals of the Big West tournament.

After withdrawing, the school insisted that their players “should not have to forgo this opportunity pending a more thoughtful and better system that serves all athletes.”

So who is Blaire Fleming? And why do they cause so much controversy in women’s sports?

DailyMail.com is at your fingertips with everything you need to know about the player.

Trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming has been in the headlines once again this week

Several opponents have refused to play Fleming and San Jose State this season

Who is Blaire Fleming?

Fleming was born in 2002 at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, but grew up over 1,000 miles east in Aldie, Virginia.

The 6-foot-1-inch player first ventured into girls volleyball at John Champe High School, where an advantage in height and spiking ability helped them become a key member of head coach Jasmine Jackson’s team.

In her senior year in 2019, Fleming became the focal point of the best volleyball team in John Champe High School history with a historic 19-win season, before being named first-team all-district.

Blaire started college with Coastal Carolina during the covid-affected 2020 season before eventually transferring to San Jose State in 2022.

What records have they broken?

During her successful high school career with John Champe, Fleming set the school single-season record for kills in a season with 266, as well as the single-game record for kills with 30 against Battlefield High School in September of that year.

Fleming is also the leader in kills for a San Jose State team that will compete in the Mountain West tournament final Saturday against Colorado State.

Fleming was born in 2002 at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, but grew up in Virginia

The 6-foot-1-inch player first ventured into girls volleyball at John Champe High School

Blaire started college with Coastal Carolina before transferring to San Jose State in 2022

For SJSU, the player has recorded over 250 kills this season, which is a milestone in the sport.

It’s the second time the outside hitter has eclipsed that total, having done so in his first season with the Spartans in 2022.

How have other teams and players reacted?

San Jose State had seven regular season wins by forfeit after several opponents refused to play them with Fleming in their ranks.

Utah State, Southern Utah and Nevada all lost games against the Spartans, while Wyoming refused to play them on two separate occasions. Boise State has now done it three times after losing this week’s semifinal.

In addition, a host of women’s volleyball players – including teammates of Fleming’s – and coaches recently filed a lawsuit demanding that the player be declared ineligible for the Mountain West Conference tournament, that SJSU’s wins be vacated and that the team be deemed ineligible for the conference tournament.

According to the filing, Spartans captain Brooke Slusser, who previously supported the Nevada women’s volleyball players for refusing to compete against SJSU, demanded that officials remove teammate Fleming from the roster ahead of their conference championship game in Las Vegas this month.

San Jose State went on a seven-game regular season losing streak due to concern over Fleming

Slusser, along with 10 other current or former Mountain West players, plus suspended SJSU associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, allege university and conference officials violated their Title IX rights by allowing Fleming to play for the women’s team.

But last week, a federal judge ruled that Fleming can continue to play for the Spartans despite the uproar surrounding their inclusion.

The NCAA is also facing a class-action lawsuit from more than a dozen female athletes, who accuse the organization of knowingly violating a law that prohibits gender-based discrimination.

How has the world reacted?

Donald Trump called out Fleming during a town hall event on Fox News last month, before going on to defeat Kamala Harris in the presidential race and secure a return to the White House.

Trump spoke out in a viral clip that appeared to show Fleming tipping a ball into the face of a rival player, although it later emerged it hit them on the shoulder.

‘I saw the bang, it was a bang. “I’ve never seen a ball hit that hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently, I mean, they’ve been hurt really bad. Women playing men. But you don’t have to play volleyball.

‘We’ll stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop. You can’t have it.

Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer who advocates against the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, was fumed after a federal judge ruled that Fleming can still play volleyball for the San Jose State women’s team.

Donald Trump called out Fleming during a town hall event on Fox News last month

Former college swimmer Riley Gaines has also spoken out against the volleyball player

“A federal judge just ruled in favor of a male athlete who has been injuring defenseless women in volleyball for years,” Gaines wrote on X. “It’s time to remove the activist judges who refuse to enforce the law as intended.”

Many people posted responses to Gaines’ tweet — agreeing with her position.

But trans swimmer and former NCAA champion Lia Thomas — who previously competed against Gaines — is backing Fleming amid a wave of attacks similar to what she faced in 2021 and 2022.

Thomas was banned from competing in elite women’s events ahead of the Olympics by The Court of Arbitration for Sport panel, which ruled she was ineligible to challenge World Aquatics’ policy on trans athletes. She won a women’s national title in the 500 free while placing fifth in the 200 free at the 2022 NCAA finals with Gaines.

“It can just be extremely invasive and dehumanizing,” Thomas said ESPN. “And that’s in a way, I think, very few people ever experience. To have my own personal identity and personality turned into a culture war conversation just takes away all my humanity. It can be very difficult to keep trying to persevere through that. ‘