Former ESPN commentator Sage Steele is alleging that her bosses demanded that she stop talking and posting social media posts about infamous transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022.
Thomas became infamous after the University of Pennsylvania allowed him to join the women’s swim team, and he went from an unremarkable male swimmer to suddenly becoming one of the stars of the UPenn female swim team.
Steele was not a supporter of UPenn’s decision to allow the male-born Thomas to compete as a female and, along with former ESPN personality Sam Ponder, repeatedly spoke out against Thomas.
This week, appearing on Riley Gaines’ podcast, “Gaines for Girls,” Steele is blasting ESPN for trying to shut her down over the Thomas story.
“I was asked to stop tweeting about it. I was asked to stop doing anything saying anything about it on social media because I was offending others at the company. I made sure I sent up another tweet that night after I received that email because, like, no,” Steele said.
The latest episode of the Gaines for Girls Podcast...
— OutKick (@Outkick) December 27, 2023
Riley interviews @sagesteele
TIMESTAMPS
02:04 Sage's Experience at ESPN
06:35 The Impact of Cancel Culture on ESPN
15:12 The Support from Women at ESPN
16:42 The disappointment with ESPN's coverage of Lia Thomas
18:33 Being… pic.twitter.com/AFG66zglop
“And it’s, let’s stop living in this lie. And once again, oh, you’re going to you’re to silence me and Sam. She was told the same thing for this issue, but they were going to let everybody else talk about all these other things that are not even related to sports on our sports programming,” she added.
“I already had the lawsuit going. I didn’t know what how it was going to end. But I literally said this is the hill I will die on 100 percent because it’s facts,” Steele explained.
SportsCenter on ESPN anchor Sage Steele gives the invocation before the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (Logan Riely/Getty Images)
“This is not even my opinion about a vaccine mandate or whatever, these are facts. This is science, this is biology. This is all of the things. Come at me. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me to stop supporting women. Go ahead, tell me,” she concluded.
Steele left ESPN this year after repeatedly being silenced by the network.
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