Solution people like Lia Thomas would have to swim their worst stroke which I'm guessing for Thomas is breastroke. In fact if you want to swim as a woman, you would have to not be at a physical advantage and swimming a stroke were you have less of an advantage one help. If Thomas is only 59 to 102 as a breastroker instead of being the great freestyle that Thomas is where Thomas wins NCCAS in 500 free but place in consolations in breaastroke then that evens it out.
More in the news about this topic in the past few days. Numerous UPenn swimmers speak out citing unfair advantage for Thomas. Florida Gov signs bill ruling trans females can not participate in boys/men events at public schools.
Tough discussion. I believe we need to have a 3rd and maybe a 4th group....male to femaie and female to male (probably not alot of info ab these athletes.. We've been only dealing with 2 saxes, and now we must deal with 4. But just like men and women don't compete toogether, the new "groups" shouldnt compete togetheer. It's interesting that we have had 2 sexes all these years and now we're heading towards having 2 morel
This might not be the right forum to ask this question, but since it’s already going I thought I’d present it here. As you know, there’s been a lot in the news lately about transgender athletes. Mostly transgender females (male-to-female) being barred from participating in female events. The argument being that they are, for all intents and purposes, still a male competing against birth females, and that the male->female trans athlete has an unfair advantage against birth females. But it got me wondering about events where a female->male trans athlete might have an advantage over birth male athletes. For me, when I think about this transgender issue, initially events like track & field, swimming, wrestling, etc. come to mind. But I wonder if there are events like the male gymnastics disciplines where a female->male might have an advantage over a birth male. Maybe diving???
The right call but we'll see how long common sense prevails. The fact that Lia Thomas was competing at all may have set the whole movement back as the situation's unfairness was obvious to most rational human beings. Perhaps they could have chosen a more nuanced case (testicular feminization--not really trans though) to make their poster boy/girl.
I can't think of one. I believe there was a trans-man who had a modicum of success in triathlon (and I emphasize modicum). The whole push for women's sports and raison d'etre of Title IX flushed.
In my work (Psychiatrist) I have a few trans patients. I know one trans man who ran marathons before and after transition. Getting back into running after surgery and on hormones he said "wow, testosterone is amazing, I am going faster on less training." He was about middle of the pack before transition and much further back as a man, but was having fun.
Read an article somewhere, forget where, but it implied that gymnastics may be one, due to the general superior flexibility. There were a few others, but every example was a subjectively judged competition.
One other difference is that the endurance events seem to be less skewed towards males than sprints. Even from sprint to middle distance in swimming, the difference is 10% for the 500 (50th percentile NCAA), and 14% for the 100.
