Julie Tetart: Monaco’s First Openly Trans Athlete Makes Waves in Basketball

Julie Tetart is rewriting her own story long before anyone in the WNBA picks up the pen.

In 2021, she stepped away from basketball to transition from a man to a woman. In 2024, she came back and walked straight into history, becoming Monaco’s first openly trans athlete. That alone would have been a landmark. What followed turned her into a viral phenomenon.

Back on court with Monaco Basket Association in France’s second division, Tetart has been putting up numbers that look like a misprint: 21.2 points and 20.2 rebounds per game. Those are video-game stats, the sort that bounce around social media feeds and ignite arguments in comment sections. And they did.

The reaction was instant. Clips spread. Debates raged. The WNBA’s name started getting dragged into the conversation, whether it was ready or not.

Rumors of a move to the United States gathered pace online. Claims popped up that Tetart had already filed WNBA draft paperwork. None of that has been verified. No official confirmation, no documents, no announcement. Just noise.

Tetart hasn’t exactly poured cold water on the idea, but she hasn’t sold a fantasy either. She has called playing in America a dream and said she would listen if an opportunity came. At the same time, she has been blunt about the odds. She is 34. The WNBA is the sharp end of the women’s game. She knows the gap.

Right now, her reality is far more local and far more urgent. Monaco are fighting for a playoff spot in France’s second tier, and Tetart is at the heart of that push. Every rebound, every put-back, every possession matters. That’s where her focus sits.

The next step up is obvious: France’s top division and a shot at the national team. In a recent interview with French media, she was asked about both. Her answer cut through the hype.

“It would already be huge for me,” she said of the possibility of reaching the elite level in France and pulling on the national jersey. Then came the perspective that defines her approach: she accepts there are “many more young people, stronger than me.”

It’s the realism of a veteran who understands the ladder she’s trying to climb and the athletes already on it.

Across the Atlantic, the picture is even starker. Beyond unverified social media chatter, no WNBA franchise has expressed interest. The league itself has yet to set out a clear, public stance on gender in a case like Tetart’s. Put those pieces together and a move to the U.S. sits in the “highly improbable” column, not the “imminent” one.

That hasn’t stopped her name from being pulled into wider conversations around women’s basketball. While fans argue over whether Caitlin Clark was robbed of Player of the Week honors — with Angel Reese posting 14 points, 3.7 assists and 17.7 rebounds per game against Clark’s 35.5 points, 11 assists and 4 rebounds — Tetart’s story runs on a different track entirely: identity, visibility, and the right to compete.

For now, though, the headlines and hypotheticals stay secondary. The WNBA can wait. Draft chatter can fade in and out of the timeline.

Julie Tetart has a season to finish, a playoff chase to lead, and a shot at France’s premier division to chase. If the next chapter takes her beyond that, it won’t be written on social media first.