Payton McNabb had dreams of becoming a college athlete, until a volleyball spiked by a transgender competitor came within inches of killing her when she was 17 and forever changed the trajectory of her life.
Now, in the hopes of preventing history from repeating itself, she’s sharing her story in the new documentary “Kill Shot: How Payton McNabb Turned Tragedy Into Triumph,” created by the Independent Women’s Forum.
“If my story can in any way help prevent this from happening to at least just one woman or girl, then it was all worth it,” McNabb, now 19, told The Post.
Before that fateful game in 2022, McNabb and her teammates at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, NC, were aware of a transgender player on the opposing team but afraid to speak their concerns.
“We never thought we would ever be put in this position to begin with,” she said. “I didn’t know one person who agreed with [a transgender athlete competing against us] on my team, but we didn’t know what to do.”
The match was relatively uneventful until that player spiked the ball directly into McNabb’s head, knocking her unconscious for 30 seconds and sending the whole gym into a shocked silence.
Everyone else — including the trans player — ultimately finished the game, while McNabb was rushed off the court with a concussion, neck injury and two black eyes.
“It was 100% avoidable, if only my rights as a female athlete had been more important than a man’s feelings,” she said.
The full extent of her injury unfolded over weeks, as McNabb was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, a brain bleed, partial paralysis and loss of peripheral vision on her right side. She also suffered ongoing memory loss, confusion and severe headaches.
“The guilt Payton’s father and I carry is heavy,” her mother, Pamela McNabb, told The Post. “At the time we weren’t allowed to speak up. We couldn’t say, ‘No, she’s not playing against a boy, it’s dangerous.’”
As a lifelong athlete, having to sit out the rest of the volleyball season during her senior year was a major disappointment for McNabb.
“I had the hopes and dreams of playing college softball and I had the opportunities too, but my injury set me back, and it didn’t end up working out,” she said. “I was really depressed.”
The documentary includes raw footage of the incident. It also includes interviews with Payton, as well as her parents and sister, who have never spoken out before.
“I would never, ever let her play today if I knew what I know now,” Pamela McNabb said in the documentary. “Pull your kid. Don’t play. It is not worth what has happened to her to happen to anybody else’s child.”
In April of 2023, McNabb, then still 17, decided to testify at the North Carolina General Assembly in favor of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Bill, sharing her story publicly for the first time.
“I was hesitant about it,” she recalled. “It’s not in my comfort zone at all, and I didn’t want all this attention, but I thought about this happening to my younger sister or, if I have kids one day, my daughter, and I seriously just cannot accept that at all.”
Not long after, North Carolina officially banned trans athletes from competing in female sports at the middle, high school and college levels.
The publicity drew scrutiny from the public and also from the transgender athlete who spiked the ball into McNabb’s head — and who, McNabb says, has never apologized to her.
In the documentary, McNabb shows the camera an Instagram message from the other player, who has never been publicly named, that reads: “Wow I really am living rent free in your head, aren’t I?”
McNabb is now a second year student at Western Carolina University, studying marketing, but said her injuries have followed her to college, too.
Because of the head trauma, she is unable to play softball at the collegiate level as planned. She also still suffers from debilitating headaches and anxiety, both of which started suddenly after the injury.
McNabb said she has lasting cognitive issues, requiring extra tutoring for memory loss and retention issues.
“I was always at the top of my class. Learning had never been an issue before,” she said. “But I still just can’t comprehend the way that I used to or focus on what I need to learn.”
Despite all of the lasting challenges, McNabb refuses to be silent.
“Every single person that fights for truth, people absolutely attack them, but it doesn’t bother me because I know what I’m saying is common sense,” she said. “It’s not about me. I’m in this for women and girls.”
