A Girls Right to Win

Sixteen female athletes filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA for allowing transgender women to compete in college sports and use women’s locker rooms at events, legal action spurred by the success of swimmer Lia Thomas, who became the first openly transgender person to win NCAA Division I national championship two years ago.

THE ISSUE

Should male athletes who identify as transgender compete in women’s sports?

If you’ve recently listened to any major news outlets, you’d hear a resounding “yes.” Athletes who identify as—then compete against—the opposite sex are often celebrated in the media.

As a society, we want to hear about the heroes, dream with them, and share in their success. We need role models for our youth…

However, are we focused on the issue of girl’s and women’s right to win at their chosen sport, or are we following popular opinion?

We should celebrate sports and individual efforts to achieve greatness in their chosen field. As a former professional athlete traveling the world for tennis tournaments, I saw firsthand how incredibly competitive and challenging it is. Because of this, I want to know how it has become customary to allow biological men to compete against women. Is it fair?

THE SCIENCE

Some supporters of trans rights claim that males who receive cross-sex hormones and artificially lower their testosterone levels should be allowed to compete against females. However, recent studies have proven that these methods do not negate the performance gap between the sexes.

Male physiology underpins their better athletic performance, including increased muscle mass and strength, stronger bones, different skeletal structures, better adapted cardiorespiratory systems, and early developmental effects on brain networks that wire males to be inherently more competitive and aggressive. (cited from Alison. K. Heaters article. Link here) Even the National Institute on Health states these head-to-head competitions between female and transgender males are not fair, as there are apparent physiological differences between men and women. They state men have increased muscle strength, stronger bones, and more authoritarian skeletal structures with better-adapted cardiorespiratory systems and a higher testosterone level.

Several physical characteristics of postpubescent males predispose them to outperform females in sports that require strength, power, and speed. Adult males tend to be taller with longer limbs. The breadth of their shoulders allows for more muscle on a larger shoulder girdle, the main contributor to postpubescent males' advantage in upper-body strength. Adult males have more overall muscle mass and less body fat than females, even in trained samples. Male athletes average 4% to 12% body fat compared to 12% to 23% in female athletes. Males develop larger skeletal muscles, larger hearts and lungs, and a more significant number of red blood cells (which absorb oxygen for an aerobic advantage).

In another report, Dr. Brown, an exercise science professor at the University of Nebraska, elaborates: “[I]t is obvious that some effects of male puberty that confer advantages for athletic performance—in particular bone size and configuration—cannot be reversed once they have occurred.” He demonstrates how puberty creates height and mass differences, providing a significant athletic advantage for males. And no amount of testosterone blockers can compensate for that advantage.

It makes the most significant difference in individual sports, where strength and biological advantages are combined in a combat-type competition, such as tennis, swimming, track and field, martial arts, and boxing. And interestingly, no female-to-male transgender athletes want to switch over. A former girl competing against men? It should be the same thing, right?

Let’s look at some examples:

Men’s 100m world record is 9.58 sec by Usain Bolt, and women’s 100m record is 10.49 by Florence Griffith-Joyner. That’s an awe-inspiring time for Florence, who had been unbeaten for over thirty years, yet it would not qualify her to enter the men’s 100m race.
Dr. Brown cites research showing how the competition differs between male and female athletes. For example, in 2017 alone, well over 5,000 males, including some under 18 years old, ran 400-meter times faster than the personal bests of U.S. Olympic gold medalists Sanya Richards-Ross and Allyson Felix.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lea Thomas soared from a mid-500s ranking (554th in the 200 freestyle; all divisions) in men’s competition to one of the top-ranked swimmers in women’s competition. Lea Thomas wins a Division I swim meet with 9 seconds ahead of the rest. Nine seconds in swimming is a lifetime ahead of the rest.
Alana McLaughlin, a transgender MMA fighter, almost kills her opponent in the ring
Serena Williams has said she would lose 6:1 6:1 in 30 minutes to Andy Murray, despite being the best female tennis player in history. But…she is still a woman. Top female tennis players often ‘spar’ or train with male tennis players who are lower ranked or not even on the men’s tour. And usually, they dominate against female players.

Even without research into the science behind the difference between biological female and male bodies, common sense should prevail here. Having been in sports all my life, I have seen the difference. My husband, Hans, is a former high-level tennis player and an Olympic athlete. He left home at 16 to travel the world and play tournaments with very little money to his name. The competition in professional tennis is so fierce that the ranking climb was brutal. It took nearly a decade, fighting for each match, to save up some money and reach an impressive top 40 in the world. We used to joke that instead of sleeping in train stations and playing club matches for money, so he could play professional tournaments or drive three days straight to get to a match and then lose repeatedly. All he had to do was call himself Hansina, tell everyone he was a she now, compete against women, win every match, and bank millions of dollars. How incredible! But then again, it would not have been the same level of achievement for him, the same gratitude and satisfaction in his efforts, then fighting for his spot on the men’s tour.

WHY DOES IT MATTER

Women competed for the first time at the 1900 Games in Paris. Of 997 athletes, 22 women competed in five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism, and golf. Since then, we have come a long way to build girls’ and women's sports leagues in domestic and international settings. They allow female athletes to dedicate their lives to a chosen field and bring awe and joy to the lives of spectators. It is often a grueling, thankless, and miserable journey for the athlete, an incredible sacrifice in their lives to achieve something in their sport.

Wake up at 6 am. It’s cold outside; the grey, misty air wraps around me as I walk to the bus station for the day's first practice. I choke down the last of the bread, fighting the early morning nausea. I travel across the city in a squeaky bus, trying to catch up on some of the homework still undone for school. The tennis court I get to practice on today is a school basketball gym, with tennis court lines painted on the extremely slippery wooden floor. It’s freezing inside, so I won’t remove my sweats almost until the end of practice. After practice, I take another bus to get to school. I'm a bit late, but that’s ok. Teachers will give me a pass because I represent the school in every sports competition imaginable. I decline another invitation to a birthday party, dance, or friend activity in recess because of another practice or a weekend tournament. It might even be a faraway country; I must fly alone to save money for my family. After 7 hours of lessons, I take another bus to the track and field gym to run laps and lift weights. I admire how runners, high jumpers, and long jumpers stretch their long limbs and almost glide over the track with unimaginable speed and skill.
I push harder on my workout, but not too heavy because I still have another 2 hours of point play ahead of me on the tennis court. It’s almost 7 pm to take the bus back to the house. I should use the hour to get some homework done for tomorrow, but I fall asleep at the comforting motion of a moving bus. I was exhausted from the day. I get home, devour my dinner, and start on homework as I marvel at my sister's strength, who tends to her bloody, deformed toes from her day as an inspiring prima ballerina. She will stay up much later than me, as she just got home from her brutal training day. Time to rest, as I get to do this all over again tomorrow.

There are millions of stories like this. Mine is nothing special. Days, months, years, and decades filled with discipline, sacrifice, and determination to reach one’s goal, as impossible as they may seem. To claim that spot of victory, of participation at the highest level, as competition to get there is immense. After every lost match or failed practice, choking thoughts of self-doubt creep up and are hard to swallow. Why didn’t I hit one more basket of balls…So stupid…What about my parents and all the money and time they sacrifice for this…I should wake up earlier; maybe that will give me an advantage next time. Perhaps if I tried harder…I must not be good enough for this…

Now imagine that (female) athletes face all these challenges yet are determined and secretly hopeful, show up to the match, race, or competition, look up, and see that a former man stands at the start line or across the field from her. Her stomach drops. That’s it, then. There is nothing she can do. Today, she will have to face an inevitable loss. But what about my goal, my dream, and my hard work? They are telling her it's ok if she loses; she is expected to, because well… Why? Because formerly he, now she, has the preferred right to go and win this. Easily. His body will do it for him, as they are not equal in strength, speed, or athletic ability, even if he is a she now.

And…that’s why it matters!

A POSSIBLE SOLUTION

Any elite sports competition has been divided into male and female categories for centuries. There is also a different category for the Paralympics, a major competitive sports competition for athletes with physical or mental disabilities. This system has been in use for a long time, as it is embedded in a shared understanding of people’s abilities to compete fairly.

We wouldn’t expect an athlete with visual impairment to race 100m against Usain Bolt, the same way we should not ask girls and women to compete against a biological male.

So, how can we create equal opportunities for female and trans athletes?

The National Institute on Health recommends three categories for athletic competition because if transgender males are allowed to compete against females, there will never be cisgender female winners again. They feel the categories should be male, female, and transgender. There may be problems with the International Olympic Committee having three separate groups, but it's the only way for fairness to exist.

It is not approved by most of the trans community, as a new category is never as appealing as an already established one. At first, the transgender category might have less competition, fewer views, less publicity, and less public interest. But then again, let’s think back to the 1900’s when women were faced with the same choices. And over years of bravery, hard work, and sacrifices of female athletes, the new generation of girls and women can enjoy the fruits of said labor. How can we take it away from them?

In a bold move, The World Athletics Council, the international track and field governing body, barred transgender women athletes from elite competitions for women beginning March 31, 2023. In a statement released on March 23, 2023, Sebastian Coe, the council's president, said, “Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations.”

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