Saw that a couple of days ago. Swimswam ran an article about it......but did not mention the trans part. And prior to the transition, Thomas (then WIll, off of memory) was mid pack. Among 18 year olds (because I can look up that info), there is an 8 second differnce between the top man and woman. Thomas would have been in the 50's among 18 year olds with his best time (at age 21). As a woman, the time just swum was a full second faster tahn the #1 woman. Only 2.5 seconds off the prior best. Will's PB had him 22nd in the field in a meet first weekend in December, so same time of year as now. Lia's time was nearly 2 full seconds faster than the winner at the same meet. (just looking at 200 Free)
This will be discussed with my daughters at some point. ONe in particular is very supportive of the current social trends, and has not fully realized how this couild negatively affect her. This may change. She has seen through college applications how some policies are working against her.
I"m not opposed to finding some place for trans women to compete, under some sort of system. But Thomas' performance is a pretty darn strong indicator that a trans woman has distinct advantages over a conventional (is that the right term?) woman. I believe the IOC has a 2 year period where they must test at normal female levels (testosterone) before they can compete. Maybe another year will make a difference? Not sure, but I hope for my daughter's sake that this isn't normal.
Saw that a couple of days ago. Swimswam ran an article about it......but did not mention the trans part. And prior to the transition, Thomas (then WIll, off of memory) was mid pack. Among 18 year olds (because I can look up that info), there is an 8 second differnce between the top man and woman. Thomas would have been in the 50's among 18 year olds with his best time (at age 21). As a woman, the time just swum was a full second faster tahn the #1 woman. Only 2.5 seconds off the prior best. Will's PB had him 22nd in the field in a meet first weekend in December, so same time of year as now. Lia's time was nearly 2 full seconds faster than the winner at the same meet. (just looking at 200 Free)
This will be discussed with my daughters at some point. ONe in particular is very supportive of the current social trends, and has not fully realized how this couild negatively affect her. This may change. She has seen through college applications how some policies are working against her.
I"m not opposed to finding some place for trans women to compete, under some sort of system. But Thomas' performance is a pretty darn strong indicator that a trans woman has distinct advantages over a conventional (is that the right term?) woman. I believe the IOC has a 2 year period where they must test at normal female levels (testosterone) before they can compete. Maybe another year will make a difference? Not sure, but I hope for my daughter's sake that this isn't normal.
