Females vs Female Sports
Since 2003, the International Olympic Committee have permitted transgender athletes to compete in the Olympic Games under the gender in which they identify. Many elite female athletes such as Paula Radcliffe and Dame Kelly Holmes have questions about the policies and call for more research into whether transgender females have athletic advantages over cisgender female opponents. The opposition stems from the fact that men are taller than women on average, have a higher testosterone level, and overall greater muscle mass. They also have greater bone density and higher capacity to carry oxygen in the blood.
A top male athlete achieves ten percent better than a female equivalent. Therefore, some athletes believe that transgender women have a greater performance advantage after transitioning. However, there is not enough evidence to draw a conclusion for either side. A professor of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Brighton says, “We need the evidence to be able to say that having transgender females competing against cisgender females is fair – or at least, we can make the argument that it’s fair.”
Take muscle mass for example. In the hormonal treatment for the male-to-female transition, testosterone is decreased. Testosterone helps build muscle, so decreasing it will cause the muscle to diminish. But on the other hand, the muscle has the ability to grow to its former size, back to the normal sized muscle. In one study in 2004, scientists studied the physical changes over the course of transition. They found that the overlap in muscle mass between transgender and cisgender women remained similar. However, neither of the participants were athletes, and none of the physical changes were related to athleticism. Whether there is no advantage or the lack of scientific research, the answer remains unclear.
According to the National College Athletic Association, NCAA, taking testosterone is legal in NCAA sports for treatment of gender dysphoria. The most recent transgender college athlete to make headlines is Lia Thomas. She competes for the University of Pennsylvania as a female swimmer. Setting female school and conference records in the pool with average athletic male times, makes people wonder if her competition is fair? Females who have trained all their years just to fall short against a born male opponent with muscles twice their size and sufficiently taller could be perceived as unfair.
As a female college athlete myself, it takes the fun and love of competing away. In Division III, where there are no athletic scholarships or special privileges, but early morning workouts, long afternoon practice, weekend travel, and still the workload of a normal stressed college student, it brings up the question: Why do we do it?
None of us really know why. However, when I ask my peers on other teams and other genders, we do it because we simply love the sport. Nonetheless, knowing female sports soon might be dominated by competitors with a born advantage upsets me. It takes passion away from female sports because we will always be seen and viewed as the “weaker gender”. Women are already outnumbered by men in the sports industry. Girls and women shouldn’t give up their hard-won sports opportunities, no matter how real the harms suffered by transgendered athletes.
Sports have been set up as binary with males and female categories. With the growing popularity of transgender competitors, sports need to adapt. New categories with new events and classifications should be established rather than trying to squeeze transgender athletes into one of the two options.
The current rules for transgender athletes are flawed. Lia Thomas showed all of us that the current rules are unfair and forcing her into the women’s category only stimulates resentment. This doesn’t mean that transgender athletes should be discounted from the many benefits of sports. Rather, sports must adapt and create new classifications that are not harmful to women’s sports.