The University of Virginia swim team joined former President Donald Trump on stage Saturday night as he rallied his supporters and called for a ban on transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.

Speaking to a crowd in Salem, Virginia, the Roanoke County seat, Trump attacked the “radical left” for “transgender mania”; athletes from nearby Roanoke College.

In October 2023, a transgender swimmer who had competed on the men’s team a year earlier joined the women after transitioning. asking female athletes to sound the alarm Being forced to compete against a teammate who has a potential advantage.

“Brave members of the swim team stood up to trans fanatics,” Trump told the crowd.

Seven members of the women’s team, wearing pink shirts with hot dogs that read “Men stay out of women’s sports,” joined the Republican candidate on stage, where team captain Lilly Mullens praised Trump for supporting their cause.

“We know that men have a natural advantage over women in sports, and due to current policies, men compete against women of all ages in all sports,” Mullens said.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have advocated and pushed for this anti-woman, gender-based discrimination to continue throughout this country, and clearly it is unfair,” Mullens said.

In addition to raising the issue of trans athletes in women’s sports, Trump also repeated the following warnings: An earlier campaign stop in North Carolina The looming economic crisis under Harris’ leadership.

“The Kamala economy has been declared in a depression,” he said, referring to the latest jobs report, which found that the U.S. added only 12,000 jobs in October. Lowest total since 2020.