it was on sports talk radio recently - wondering what would happen if she was in olympic qualifying situations.
But what if it isn’t one, but the entire team of cis women (girls) who can no longer play? At the high school level, there is no requirement for testosterone. If the players identify as female, they can play.
Even Caitlyn Jenner says it would have been unfair to have competed as a woman even though that is how she identified (although not openly at the time Bruce was in the olympics). Venus Williams, the best woman tennis player in the world said she could beat anyone ranked higher than 100 on the men’s rankings, and when she tried, she couldn’t beat (didn’t even come close) to beating the guy ranked #201. Could she beat most 40 year old men? Sure. Could she beat any D1 college man? I don’t know.
If it is okay to exclude one cis woman because she’s not better than the trans woman, why is it not okay to exclude just one trans woman? Still just one college woman being excluded.
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IOC’s recently issued guidelines about transgender athletes is at https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf .
The entire purpose of women’s sports is to have a separate category where they can compete amongst themselves, because they cannot compete against players who have had the benefits of testosterone.
It’s hard to overestimate the benefits of testosterone. Here are two additional examples:
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By the time an elite male runner hits 16 years old, he could very well be faster than a woman Olympic record holder.
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There are have been multiple cases where a country’s women’s national soccer team has been beaten by a local teenage boys team.
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The IOC’s guidelines are appropriately nuancedand everyone on this thread might benefit from reading them.
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The guy (actually ranked #203) played both Venus and her sister on the same day, and easily beat them both:
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I saw an interesting comment elsewhere but I thought might be worth mentioning here. It questioned how long the ban would be for a cis female who was caught using testosterone daily for a few years.
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I’m completely support of the non-cis community wholeheartedly. I also have a swimmer who has been training more than half her life. I’m concerned for those athletes who have worked hard to improve and like others have said, millisecond by millisecond. This swimmer is on the cusp of breaking Missy Franklin’s records, and I am challenged by that. I don’t have answered, unfortunately.
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But they are so boring compared to endless anecdotes about how boys are bigger, faster, and stronger than girls.
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Yes it’s frustrating when science gets in the way.
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When the anecdote is “a teenage boy outperforms the women’s world record holder”, there is a great deal of information embedded there, for those willing to see it.
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And my two tiny 8 and under swimmers were in the same age group (and state) as Missy Franklin. They had NO chance against her as 6 year olds (she was HUGE). Against 6 year old boys? No, even they were faster. Missy could beat them until they were all in high school, but then they could beat her. And she was still HUGE.
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I really enjoyed this episode of This American Life. Interesting and funny but not very informative re: athletics. Thought I’d post it for anyone interested in this infamous hormone.
This makes me so sad for female athletes. I believe tennis will be the next sport attacked.
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The general topic of transgender athletes has been discussed here before.
Bet the Penn swimmer has lower testosterone levels than the old East German “women’s” swim teams from the 70’s and 80s…
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There was a trans man swimming on the Harvard team and the stories were about him not doing well. He was admitted to Harvard as a woman swimmer but then wanted to compete on the men’s team and both coaches approved and the transfer was made. His times were no longer competitive on the men’s team at all, but they allowed him to continue.
So yes, stories about him not doing well were published. He would not have made the men’s team if he’d applied out of high school.
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And it was found they had an unfair advantage and they were banned from the Olympics (or stripped of their medals, or received other punishment for breaking the rules).
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Wow, I was so pleased with this community before I went out and the last few comments were posted. This woman is now living her true life. She is able to be who she is, think of how much pain she went through to come out first to herself, then her family and friends, and now the world. Why is she less important than the other girls and women who compete? She has worked hard, taken hormone suppressing medication and gone through another puberty to be herself. As has been mentioned above she is a single exceptional athlete, we dont hear about the many who are not. And if she was one of the many trans women and girls attacked or killed for being their true selves we would not be talking about her on this page.
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