A Victory Snatched Away
She was absolutely stunned when she realized what was going on. There was nothing she could do at that moment but watch as her hard earn win was taken away in a second. All of the hard work down the drain in an instant. Why did this happen?
A Victory Snatched Away
Her Dreams
From early on, Willis knew that she loved swimming. Even though she is only in high school, she always knew that her future always included swimming in it, with dreams of the Olympics and swimming scholarships always in her sights. She made sure to partake in any competition she could in her hometown of Anchorage, but she had no idea that one even would lead to a total disaster.
Her Dreams
A Team Player
Breckynn is known to be not just an excellent swimmer, but also a hard worker, a kind person that gets along with others, and of course, a team player, which is critical for any sport. However, soon she would be faced with a serious injustice.
A Team Player
Swim Meet Day
The day of the competition was finally here, and Willis was ready to take on the 100-meter freestyle she had trained so hard for. While she felt some butterflies, she also felt excited and ready. She didn’t notice that one of the officials was glaring at her angrily.
Swim Meet Day
Moment Of Truth
The moment was finally there. The whistle was blown and she got in the water. She knew that she was ready, and her muscles knew what she needed to do. When she reached the end, Willis knew that she had done well. She jumped out of the water, grabbed a towel, and waited for the final results.
Moment Of Truth
A Total Shock
Breckynn felt like she had just been clobbered. The sentence reverberated in her head: “Breckynn Willis of Dimond High School is disqualified.” How could that be? She knew that she had not done anything wrong. She looked around, but her teammates and coaches also seemed like they were at a loss.
A Total Shock
They Were All Confused
Willis’s coach Lauren Langly headed over to the official to clarify what was going on. Willis watched from the side, along with her teammates, as Langly argued furiously with the judges, one of which pointed over at Breckynn. Whatever the judge said made Langly step back in compete shock, as if the official had just hit her in the face.
They Were All Confused
Totally Unexpected
All Willis could hear Langley say was: “you can’t be serious.” Breckynn felt an overwhelming wave of emotions: confusion, hurt, anger, and frustration were just a few. She knew that she did not have any penalties during her swim, and she couldn’t possibly imagine what the issue was.
Totally Unexpected
Horrifying Comments
Willis decided to go over to try to understand what was going on and perhaps even confront the official, when she heard snippets of the conversation. Her heart sank immediately. She heard the judge say: “The girl’s swimsuit was so far up I could see butt cheek touching butt cheek,’’ while her coach’s face was completely disgusted at this comment. Then the two women saw Willis heading their way.
Horrifying Comments
The Reasoning
As Willis approached them Langly said: “Let’s go.” Willis asked what had happened. Her coach told her that the refs decided to disqualify her because they believed that she was showing too much skin and had chosen to intentionally hike up her swimsuit to show more skin. However, another reason would come to light soon.
The Reasoning
The Biggest Problem
Breckynn, her coaches, and her teammates were quick to point out that she was wearing the same exact swimsuit as the rest of the girls on her team. There was also an explanation for what had happened to her bathing suit. It’s referred to as “swimmer’s wedgie,” and all swimmer experience them. Everyone knew that Willis had not intentionally done anything. However, soon they would hear the real reason behind this mess.
The Biggest Problem
Not Backing Down
Willis’s coach Lauren Langford decided to do something about this situation, and she turned to social media as well as filed a formal complaint with the Alaska School Activities Association. This eventually brought out the other reason, which was targeting Breckynn unfairly.
Not Backing Down
No One-Size Fits All Solution
While Willis is a bit curvier than the rest of her teammates, she is also of mixed-heritage. It seemed completely unreasonable that she was the only one of her teammates to be disqualified for her swimsuit when she was wearing the same exact one as everyone else. What else could be going on here?
No One Size Fits All Solution
A Repeated Pattern
Breckynn’s sister is also a swimmer, and she noticed something. She realized that only she and her sister had been targeted for this type of “violation.” Could it be that only the mixed-race girls were breaking the rules, or was something more sinister going on?
A Repeated Pattern
Speaking Out
Her coach, Lauren Langford decided to speak out on the matter. She told KTUU: “The rest of her team was wearing the same uniform, and she was the only one disqualified. It is my opinion that she has been targeted and singled out over the course of the last year.” Referee Jill Blackstone claimed that the disqualification was due to a new “modesty rule.”
Speaking Out
Unfairly Targeted
While the new “modesty” rule did detail what the standard-issue swimsuits for team members had to look like, Breckynn was the only one who was singled out. Coach Langford suspected that it was because Jill Blackford had something against Willis, and she knew she had the evidence to prove it.
Unfairly Targeted
The Swim Scandal
Coach Langford decided to write a blog post about it, where she brought the situation to the public’s attention. This new “modesty” rule was put into place in order to control young women’s bodies, and Langford believed that part of the issue at play here was Breckynn, her sister, and others’ race as well.
Dimond High School Swimming Pool
What She Wrote
Langford opened up on the blog post. She wrote: “As a swim coach at another school within the district that regularly competes with Dimond High, I’ve watched this scandal divide my swimming community. It has caused my own athletes to be needlessly self-conscious about the appearance of their bodies, which preoccupies them just as much, if not more, than the quality of their performances. What’s clear is that these girls’ bodies are being policed — not their uniforms.”
What She Wrote
The Real Reason
Langford continued: “These young swimmers aren’t being punished for wearing their suits in scandalous or provocative ways, but rather, because their ample hips, full chests, and dark complexions look different than their willowy, thin, and mostly pallid teammates. Some will argue this scandal has nothing to do with race. ..The issue becomes glaring when officials are overheard acknowledging that white athletes are baring too much skin as well, yet they’ve never been disqualified.”
The Real Reason
A Privacy Violation
Coach Langford also shared that one of the parents at the meet secretly took a photo of Willis and had been circulating the photo by email to other parents and teachers at the school. The parent wrote: “Uniform violation!” Sometime shared that they overheard that parent say that “for the sake of their sons, the mother of these young ladies should cover up her daughters.”
A Privacy Violation
The Conclusion
Coach Langford’s post ended with her saying:
The Conclusion
Speaking Out On TV
Breckynn decided it was time to share her side of the events. Kelly Clarkson heard about the incident, and she invited Breckynn and her coach to come on her show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, to share more. All who heard the story were shocked and disgusted to hear what she had gone through.
Speaking Out On TV
Outpouring Support
People were quick to show their support for Breckynn, with one saying: “The thing that’s really frustrating is the more curvy a woman is, the more pressured she is to be “modest,” I mean come on folks. Is this really about being “modest” or body shaming cuz men can’t handle it??” Another shared: “What’s worse is that the referee who made this call disqualifying her… was a WOMAN! Seriously? How can a woman do that to a girl? Stop body shaming females for being who they are!”
Outpouring Support
The Decision
In the end, the Associated decided to overturn the ruling, reinstating Breckynn’s points and her title. Two stern reminders were sent out to staff and referees as well. The first was that there could be no assumptions made about standard0issue suits, something that a lot of people felt should have been obvious. The second was perhaps the most important.
The Decision
No Place For Hate
The second rule was that is not professionally appropriate to judge competitors based on appearance. They wanted to make it crystal clear that there is no room for sexism, racism, or discrimination at their competitions. However, there was actually a silver lining from this whole unpleasant situation.
No Place For Hate
Some Positivity
While we’re sure that Willis would have preferred that none of this would have happened, the fact remains that the media coverage did bring attention to Breckynn’s swimming skills. She was offered several scholarships to help make her swimming dreams come true.
Some Positivity
What Her Mom Thought
Breckynn’s mother, Meagan Kowatch, shared with CNN that she thought it was absolutely outrageous that only her daughter was called out for the same swimsuit that everyone else had been wearing. She said: “It’s sexual harassment. It shouldn’t have any place on the pool deck.”
Meagan Kowatch
The Memo
The Alaska School Activities Association sent out a letter to swim and diving officials in order to consider whether athletes were rolling up their swimsuits on purpose or not before disqualifying them. Billy Strickland, the association’s executive director told KTUU: “We would encourage officials to give the benefit of the doubt to the athlete.”
The Memo
A New Rule Introduced
In light of the situation, a new rule was put into place ahead of the 2019-2020 season. The rule said that an athlete’s coach would have to be notified before the heat if any inappropriate attire was seen on an athlete.
A New Rule Introduced
The Reason Why
Director of sports for the National Federation of State High School Associations Sandy Searcy shared why these rules were put into play. She explained that these rules are put into place in order to “define the parameters of the problem that quite frankly has been brought to us by adults who are uncomfortable being on deck with young men and young ladies who are not appropriately covered.”
The Reason Why
The Diagram
The association released a diagram that shows how they believe swimsuits should fit athletes and can be used as guide for officials to follow. However, Breckynn’s mother thinks the diagram is based on an outdated “1950s” swimsuit model and doesn’t show how modern swimsuits actually fit the physique of high performing athletes.
The Diagram
Most Improved
According to Dewayne Ingram, who is Breckynn’s strength conditioning coach, Breckynn was the most improved athlete he’s coached in the seven years he had been working as a coach. She went from a 65 pound bench press maximum all the way up to 150 pounds after just one year.
Most Improved
Taking Attention Away
Breckynn’s mother felt that the wrong message had been sent when the way the swimsuit fit her daughter’s body had been called out. She said it was even worse considering it had overshadowed the fact that Breckynn had just been nominated for homecoming court at her school. Kowatch shared: “Breckynn can’t get away from this.”
Taking Attention Away
Not The Only Time
Unfortunately, this is not the only time a female athlete has been called out when it comes to seemingly unfair breaches of uniform rules. Jill Krebs, a South Carroll High School cross country runner experienced a very similar situation to Breckynn.
Her Disqualification
During a run, in which she had her personal best running time, Jill’s pink sports bra slipped out of her black jersey. This caused her to be disqualified, since John Grim, the meet director decided that this had violated athletic dress code.
Her Disqualification
What He Said
Grim said: “We followed [the rule book] chapter and verse, the way we always do. Any visible undergarments, according to the book, have to match if two or more people wear them, whether it’s T-shirts, tights, boxer shorts on boys.”
What He Said
Her Response
Krebs said that she was told by others that the bra was visible a bit while running, but mostly when she collapsed following crossing the finish line. She said that the brea is “not cut high.”
Her Response
Her Mom’s Response
Kreb’s mother Diane said that this was a complete outrage, and that she didn’t want the controversy to overshadow her daughter’s amazing senior year, as Jill is considered to be one of the top five runners in the state for her class.
Her Mom’s Response
The School Principal
The principal at Jill’s school, David Booz, said that he had considered appealing the ruling, but in the end, decided to let Jill focus on the rest of her meets that were coming up. He said, “There is this rule and we do have to follow it. The second issue is, is it a good rule?”
The School Principal
Harsh Rules
This was not the first time that Jill and her teammates had run into this kind of issue. It seems like there needs to be more clarifications made with these rules in order to avoid punishing student athletes who are just trying their hardest to play their sports.
Harsh Rules