Just like Nike itself, many major organizations and athletes with ties to the global sports juggernaut are unresponsive when it comes to evidence suggesting that the company is allegedly funding a child transgender athlete study. A week ago, the New York Times published a story about former San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming, a biological male who identifies as a woman and competed on the women's team last season. In the more than 10,000-word story was a single paragraph about an "ambitious study of trans adolescents" being led by Kathryn Ackerman of Boston Children's Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Among the researchers working on the study is Joanna Harper, a biological male who identifies as a woman. Details of the study are jarring, as it mentions hormone therapy and children medically transitioning. But it's where some of the money for the study is allegedly coming from that delivers a different shock. "But, she told me when we talked in February, ‘the current climate makes the study somewhat uncertain,'" Zengerle wrote, referring to Harper. "I assumed she was referring to the Trump administration’s cuts to National Institutes of Health research grants, but she said money was not a problem: The study is being funded by Nike. The problem was Trump’s separate order targeting medical care for transgender youth. ‘If we can’t perform gender-affirming care,’ she explained, ‘then we can’t bring people into the study.’" Pro-Woman Advocates Slam Nike Over Alleged Funding For Puberty-Blocker Study The company had been silent on the matter for days after the Times story, failing to respond to several requests for comment, before a Nike executive with knowledge of the situation finally contacted OutKick to say the study "was never initialized" and "is not moving forward," without providing any additional clarification. News of Nike's alleged involvement in the study drew criticism from pro-women advocates like OutKick's Riley Gaines and XX-XY Founder Jennifer Sey, as well as a response from a White House Make America Healthy Again official. But what about the roster of world-famous athletes who wear Nike products? Their comments would arguably carry more weight than a Nike executive the public doesn't know or advocates who are working to protect female athletes. OutKick reached out to many of Nike's star representatives and organizations via email and/or direct messages on social media with a request for comment regarding the alleged study and whether it impacted their perspective on their partnership. USA Basketball, the U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams, the WNBA, as well as Nike athletes including Caitlin Clark, Nelly Korda, Paige Beuckers, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Durant, Naomi Osaka, and Diana Taurasi didn't immediately respond to the requests for comment on the story. OutKick will continue to follow up with these and other athletes and organizations to see if they will respond about this concerning study.