Lance Armstrong, Most Unfair Athlete Ever, Will Determine Whether Transgender Women Play Fair Sports

Last week, world cycling champion and vodka entrepreneur Lance Armstrong announced his new podcast series, in which he will address the question no one dares answer: Is it fair for trans women to exercise in the women’s category? If this were true, AskedThat everyone’s greatest fear is being fired, ridiculed, or abolished? and “Could there be a world where we can support the transgender community and be curious about the honesty of trans athletes in sports, without being called transphobic (…)”?

Well, Lance, that world exists, and that’s the world we live in right now: it really does exist in the media that Husband year On this “non-negotiable” topic. The question is whether it is necessary, because sports unionsDoctors and geneticists have been studying all things transgender people for some time, long before the uproar, about rules for competition that is as inclusive and fair as possible.

Armstrong betrays a lot by pretending to be the first to venture into the thorny jungle, and by interviewing Caitlyn Jenner, the ultra-conservative American trans woman and euphoric Trump advocate for banning trans women in sports. Opponents like them like to appear as either – or: either we give up everything as these progressives want, and then Rico Verhoeven can still decide tomorrow that he is a woman and start beating defenseless women, or we choose bans. .

According to the Doctors who know about it-It’s not that simple. Is it unfair for trans women to exercise with women? It could be, yes: Men’s bodies generally have more muscle, run faster and have more lung capacity. But whether a trans woman has a disproportionate advantage in a particular sport depends mainly on whether she went through puberty as a boy and how long she received hormone therapy. About a six-foot-tall, swimming trans woman who went through puberty as a boy, we can agree; disproportionate benefit. But in figure skating? Rhythmic gymnastics with those funny ribbons? Darts? curling?

The exclusion of trans women also affects trans women who have received puberty inhibitors and hormone therapy and therefore have no physical advantage: unfair. Complex, which is why the policy is activated The farmer. The Olympics have allowed trans women to participate since 2003. Interesting, how many medals have trans women won there? a.

It takes a long time for trans women to dominate the sport, let’s say. It has to do with the fact that they’re a small minority, especially in major sports. Perhaps that’s why anti-trans activists refer endlessly to American swimmer Leah Thomas, who died in a college competition One time champion who has been retired for over a year. More and more international federations (swimmingAnd FootballAnd athletics) Now exclude trans women.

but to use Anti-trans activists worry about women and the specter of shameless trans women who want to eradicate women’s sports, as a baton to beat trans people. For example, the Voorzij Foundation is constantly monitoring “women’s and girls’ rights” in order to score points against transgender people.

It’s important to never hear these casual feminists talk about the real, visible inequality of women in sports. Did we hear them when the women of Ajax were denied a party in Leidseplein because the men of Ajax still felt so sad at the time that they didn’t fare so well? or about research conducted by Women Inc. Which appeared this week, which showed that reports about women’s football are still far from being taken seriously? Or about being universal at all only 4 percent Sports journalism is about better mathematics? no. Of course we can talk about fair sport – but we also want to have an honest conversation.