Who is Julie Tetart? Meet the French transgender basketball player who wants to join the WNBA amid Sophie Cunningham controversy
Julie Tetart knows exactly what people want to ask.
Clocking in at an imposing 6’3″, the French basketball standout just wrapped up one of the most dominant individual seasons in recent memory, leading France’s second-tier Ligue 2 in both scoring and rebounding while collecting three major individual awards. But as talk surrounding transgender participation in women’s sports continues to dominate WNBA headlines, her on-court production isn’t the only thing drawing attention.
Tetart, who publicly came out as transgender in 2021, recently acknowledged that reaching the WNBA is still a lifelong ambition—even if she doesn’t believe it’s likely to ever happen.
“
If they contact me, I won’t say no,” Tetart told OutKick. “
But you have to be realistic: I’m old, and there are far better players than me.“
When asked why she believed a move to the WNBA wasn’t realistic, Tetart offered another revealing answer.
“
The league, yes. The country, no.“
The timing of those comments is hard to ignore.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has become one of the league’s most talked-about players after reiterating her belief that
women’s sports should remain reserved for biological women.
“
I got a lot of negative feedback about me ‘hating trans.’ And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,‘” Cunningham told ESPN last month.
“
I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.“
The comments have triggered days of debate across the basketball world, drawing responses from fellow players, coaches, commentators, and fans. Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve even wore a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt during Sunday’s game against the Fever, while ESPN cameras captured an animated pregame conversation between Reeve and Cunningham that quickly went viral.
Dominant Season Keeps Julie Tetart In The Spotlight
Long before her WNBA comments made headlines, Tetart had already put together a season impossible to overlook.
The 34-year-old center averaged 21 points and 20 rebounds per game for Monaco while finishing atop Ligue 2 in both categories. One performance stood out above the rest: a remarkable 21-point, 30-rebound outing in March that became one of the most eye-catching stat lines of the French season.
MVP voting didn’t go her way. That didn’t stop Tetart from taking home Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Domestic Player of the Year after one of the league’s most productive seasons.
Not everyone believes those accomplishments should translate into an opportunity in the WNBA.
Former French international Audrey Sauret has argued that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s professional leagues creates an uneven playing field.
“
Ligue 2 serves as a kind of testing ground,” Sauret said earlier this year. “
By allowing them to participate in professional competitions, we create unfair competition, especially for younger players.“
She added that hormone treatment does not erase biological differences and warned the issue should have been addressed much sooner.
Tetart, meanwhile, has largely stayed away from
interacting directly with Cunningham’s comments, tacitly acknowledging that the “league” and, on a larger scale, the culture of the “country” is standing in the way of her WNBA dream.
Asked whether she had a response to the Fever guard’s position, she answered with a single word: “Aucun”—French for “none.”
That brief response hasn’t stopped her name from becoming part of the wider conversation.
Tetart may have kept her answer short, but the timing guarantees people will keep talking, whether she wants them to or not. The French star’s jaw-dropping dominance and WNBA aspirations have fell squarely in the middle of the league’s biggest off-court debate.
