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EXCLUSIVE: Prominent transgender athlete Blaire Fleming has made allegations about her former teammate Brooke Slusser’s lifestyle and academics. Slusser has denied the allegations.
Last Sunday, on the one-year anniversary of their last college volleyball game together for San Jose State, a loss in the conference championship, Slusser told Pak Gazette Digital that she developed an eating disorder that led to anorexia and the loss of her menstrual cycle.
Slusser said the ailments arose from emotional distress suffered during his final season with Fleming in 2024. Slusser filed multiple lawsuits after discovering that Fleming was transgender and that the two had shared locker rooms and bedrooms during their first season together in 2023.
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Slusser also fled the San Jose State campus and then dropped out of classes in his final semester last spring. She said constant in-person harassment from students who opposed her stance made her feel “unsafe” there. She and her family said she is still working to finish her degree.
Fleming responded to Pak Gazette Digital’s social media inquiry for a response to Slusser’s revelations.
Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans watches during the third set against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“She has been anorexic and has had problems with food for as long as I have known her.[,] aka since 2023. He literally weighed himself 2 or 3 times a day and recorded it on the whiteboard in his room…. So I don’t really care or feel bad for her. And she did not abandon her classes.[,] she failed[,] Hope that helps!” Fleming wrote. “Now please stop hitting me.”
Slusser has provided a statement to Pak Gazette Digital disputing Fleming’s allegations.
“These claims are simply not true. I have always led a very healthy lifestyle. Before these events occurred[,] I was very disciplined when it came to preparing for athletics and [kept] Follow up to make sure I was where I need to be.[,] be the best athlete. It wasn’t until all the craziness started that my healthy lifestyle became very unhealthy and I didn’t eat as much as I should,” Slusser said.
“As for school[,] I decided to stay home after fall 2024 to get better and heal. then no[,] “I did not return to San José and enrolled in more courses at an institution that was not the best for me.”
Former SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser and her parents Paul and Kim Slusser at a game on September 8, which Kim said is “the last good memory we have of her playing.” (Courtesy of Kim Slusser)
Pak Gazette Digital’s initial investigation into Fleming began with a reference to Slusser’s response to Fleming’s claim to be “suicidal” during the 2024 season, reported in a New York Times Magazine profile in April. The outlet also reported that Fleming cried “almost every night” during the scandal.
Slusser said of Fleming’s suicidal thoughts: “If that’s what [Fleming] was happening, that’s terrible.”
Fleming previously said that Slusser “needs to get a life.” That statement came in response to claims by former SJSU volleyball assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose that Fleming received special treatment from head coach Todd Kress.
“Brooke Slusser and Melissa need to have a life,” Fleming told Pak Gazette Digital on October 1.
Slusser responded: “I have a great life.”
Who is Blaire Fleming?
Fleming, a biological male, was born in 2002 at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, just south of Omaha, according to the athlete’s SJSU athletics profile. But Fleming grew up in Virginia.
According to The New York Times, Fleming discovered transgenderism in the eighth grade. Then, at age 14, Fleming allegedly worked with a doctor and therapist to transition “socially and medically.”
Fleming played girls volleyball at John Champe High School. With a listed height of 6-foot-1, Fleming is two inches taller than the average women’s college volleyball recruit of 5-foot-9, according to NCSA University Recruitment.
In November 2018, Fleming published a highlight reel for college recruiters on high school sports social media site Hudl. Most of the clips show the same type of play over and over again: Fleming jumping high over the net and hitting the ball, while trap music blared in the background.
As a senior, Fleming led John Champe to a historic 19-win season in 2019, was named first-team all-district and set the school’s single-season kills record, according to Fleming’s SJSU profile page.
Fleming’s college career began at Coastal Carolina during the COVID-affected 2020 season.
After a 9-1 regular season, Coastal Carolina reached the Sun Belt Conference championship game against Texas State, but lost in five sets.
Fleming transferred to SJSU ahead of the 2022 season.
How did you get to this point between Slusser and Fleming?
Brooke Slusser #10 and Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans call a play during the first set against the Air Force Falcons on Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Slusser transferred to SJSU for the 2023 season, a year after Fleming did. Slusser has alleged in his lawsuits against the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference that he was never told Fleming’s birth sex and that the two regularly shared hotel rooms on their travels.
Slusser and Batie-Smoose, who is leading his own lawsuit against the university, told Pak Gazette Digital that Fleming allegedly requested to room with Slusser, and team leadership reportedly granted that request.
“Blaire wanted to room with Brooke Slusser, and Blaire was comfortable with her, so Blaire gets what she wants,” Batie-Smoose said.
Pak Gazette Digital previously reached out to Fleming and SJSU for a response to these allegations.
Slusser has alleged in his lawsuits against the NCAA and Mountain West that Fleming confessed to being transgender during a conversation over ice cream with another teammate in April 2024.
Slusser then joined Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA in September 2024. What followed was a series of losses by opposing teams. Each loss compounded the growing attention in an election-season media cycle, putting SJSU volleyball players and their opponents under a massive political spotlight.
President Donald Trump even mentioned the scandal during his election campaign in October of that year, during an all-female Pak Gazette channel event.
The team was assigned regular police protection.
Slusser has alleged in his lawsuit against the Mountain West, which was filed in November, that his teammates allegedly informed him of an alleged conversation Fleming had with an opposing player, discussing a plan to punch Slusser in the face during a game. Batie-Smoose reported those same allegations in a Title IX complaint against the school, and was later suspended and had her contract not renewed in January.
The Mountain West commissioned a third-party investigation into the allegations against Fleming and determined that insufficient evidence could be found to impose discipline.
Pak Gazette Digital has reported extensively on the conditions of that investigation and its handling, prompting critical responses from the White House, the U.S. Department of Justice and members of Congress.
FORMER SJSU STAR BROOKE SLUSSER MAKES NEW ALLEGATIONS REGARDING THE INVESTIGATION OF A TRANS MATE’S ALLEGED PLOT TO HARM HER
In the final weeks of the 2024 regular season, Slusser and 10 other plaintiffs in his lawsuit against the Mountain West filed a request for a preliminary injunction to have Fleming declared ineligible to continue playing and the losses to SJSU to be reversed. Federal Judge Kato Crews, appointed by former President Joe Biden, denied the request, keeping Slusser and Fleming on the court together for practices and games.
Slusser and Fleming were eventually named to the Mountain West all-conference team, as SJSU’s only honorees.
They finished the season with a 14-7 record, helped by six conference losses, then advanced to the Mountain West championship game after Boise State lost in the divisional round.
But they lost in the title game to Colorado State, three sets to one. The loss ensured that the Spartans would not take their scandal to the NCAA tournament.
Slusser left campus shortly after at the insistence of his parents. According to The New York Times, Fleming also resumed classes remotely the following semester from Virginia.
Slusser said she came close to playing NCAA beach volleyball again last spring, and even had conversations with coaches at other schools about recruiting. But she ultimately decided against it and moved to North Carolina, where she worked as a youth volleyball coach.
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Slusser and his family say he has recovered from his anorexia and is working to finish his studies. He aspires to start his own business in dietetics.
Fleming appeared to celebrate SJSU’s graduation in a post on his Instagram Stories in May.
The U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating the university for possible violations of Title IX.
