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Female HS volleyball player injured by transgender player shares positive update to mark anniversary

September 3, 2023 | | Print Article

A female athlete who suffered horrific injuries when a transgender athlete spiked a ball directly into her face during a high school volleyball match last September reflected on the incident a year later.

Last September, Payton McNabb of Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina was competing in the game when a much more powerful biological male on the other team drove a 70 mph speeding ball into her face, resulting in what she said was partial paralysis, a concussion and other long-term physical and mental issues.

Speaking out against the state’s policies that allowed the transgender male to compete on a girl’s high school team at an April press conference during which called for state lawmakers to pass the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, HB 574, McNabb recalled her injuries.

“On Sept. 1, 2022, I was severely injured in a high school volleyball game by a transgender athlete on the opposing team. I suffered from a concussion and a neck injury that to this day I am still recovering from. Other injuries I still suffer from today include impaired vision, partial paralysis on my right side, constant headaches, as well as anxiety and depression,” she said.

On Friday, she took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to mark the one-year anniversary of the day that changed her life.

“Today marks 1 yr since a trans bio boy spiked a ball hitting me at 70 miles an hour causing me partial paralysis & other injuries. Thankful God used my situation & now NC female school athletes will be protected from being forced to play against males. Women prevailed w/ #hb574,” she wrote.

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Last month, the General Assembly overrode Democrat North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, protecting biological female athletes from a similar experience to the injuries suffered by McNabb at the hands of a transgender who should have never have been allowed to suit up for the girl’s team.

McNabb was cheered on by Twitter/X users who responded to her post on the anniversary of her injuries, offering their heartfelt support.

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“My ability to compete was taken from me. Having to play against biological males is not a level playing field and it is most definitely not safe,” McNabb said earlier this year in support of HB 574.

“I’m here for every biological female athlete behind me. My little sister, my cousins, my teammates,” she said. “Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass I won’t be the last.”

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Chris Donaldson
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