Leveling the Playing Field  

Introduction

Going back to 2022, William Thomas now referred to as Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division 1 national championship. She took first place in the 500-yard freestyle and fifth in the 200-yard freestyle. Lia also took fifth place but with this, she also tied with a cisgender woman named Riley Gaines. When the fifth place trophy was handed out, it was given to Thomas instead of equaling sharing. Later in an interview, Gaines shared that the reason both she and Thoms did not share the trophy was because “[w]e need Thomas to hold it for photo purposes. Yours will come in the mail” (8:37). This situation created a rise in concern about transgender women in sports that started to spread throughout the media and become a controversial topic. The YouTube channel VICE News produced a video that focused on transgender people in sports. On May 25, 2023, Arielle Duaime-Ross hosted a YouTube video called “Trans Athletes Address the ‘Debate’”. The video discussed what it is like to be a transgender person in sports, the negative effects that have come out of it, and how every transgender person has a right to be in a sport. The speakers that appeared in the video where Veronica Ivy, athletes’ rights expert/cyclist, Andraya Yearwood, state champion sprinter, Cat Runner, a competitive climber, and Frankie De La Cretaz, sports journalist/author (see Fig. 1). Additional speakers are Lia Thomas, former collegiate swimmer, and Schuyler Bailar, author/advocate. In this video, there are a lot of over-exaggerated claims about how transgender women should be allowed in cisgender women’s sports. Throughout this paper, the point that transgender women should be allowed to compete in cisgender women’s sports is going to be examined and proven wrong. 

Fig. 1. VICE News interviews different trans speakers on their opinions on trans people in sports (“Trans Athletes Address the “Debate”).

1. There are advantages that trans women have over cisgender women. 

Starting strong, Veronica Ivy argues throughout the inter-video that people are exaggerating claims that trans women have advantages over CIS women. Veronica claims that “people in charge already believe that trans women are just men in dresses, and so, of course, there is an inherent assumed advantage even if we can’t measure it” (20:33). Next she goes to say that “none of our science has ever shown that there’s an advantage for trans women” (Ivy 20:38). She also argues that there are not any advantages that make a big enough difference to ban someone from playing the sport. Ivy is referring to the many-voiced opinions of other Trans athletes who have said similar things. Another example of people in the media making the same claims as Ivy is Dr. Joshua D. Safer, executive director for transgender medicine and surgery in New York. In an interview when asked whether or not transgender women have any advantages over cis women he argues, “A person’s genetic make-up and internal and external reproductive anatomy are not useful indicators of athletic performance.”  Even though this is a bold claim it is not entirely wrong. Competitive sports have never been completely fair whether it is in men’s or women’s sports. For example, a 6’0 basketball player compared to a 5’3 basketball player. The 6 ‘0 player has more of an advantage because of her height, so the 5’ 3 has to make up for her height in other ways such as running or ball skill. While this claim has some true parts to it the claim is mostly false.

One of the big things that are wrong with this claim is that there are key physical differences between males and females that Veronica Ivy does not seem to acknowledge in the video. Dennis Welsman, from CATO Institute, finds that some of the advantages that transgender women have over cisgender women are “larger heart size, more hemoglobin, leaner body mass, and larger lung capacity.” Dennis Welsman concludes that, “[t]hese physiological factors underpin the strength, speed, and recovery required to be competitive in most sports.” Another writer, Andrew Latham, from CHRON, also finds that “[e]lite male athletes have a higher oxygen carrying capacity than women, which allows them to reach their maximum training peak earlier.” If we want to consider the bone structure of males versus females, Andrew Latham also finds that “[m]ale athletes have longer and larger bones, which provide a clear mechanical advantage over female athletes […]. Similarly, the ligaments of female athletes are generally more lax and fragile than those of their male counterparts.” These differences give “male athletes an advantage in sports that involve throwing, kicking and hitting, and explains the higher incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among female athletes.” Both of these authors prove that the differences between males and women are enough to affect the competition to make it unfair. Looking at this through a biological viewpoint it can be proved by science and the basic human attributes that there is a contrast between males and females. This proves that trans women have advantages over cisgender women that should not be overlooked.

2. Most often transgender women win when competing at high levels of competition.

The next claim that was made was that trans women do not always win when competing against cisgender women. This claim comes from the topic of how social media portrays athletes.  Veronica Ivy says, “[the] mainstream press, the language they use, I always pick up on, they use things like […] ‘IV dominated at the world championships’” (10:52). She claims that the media is only using certain parts like how she won gold at one of her events in the world championships over the part where she came in second in another event. She then goes on to mention that “[she loses] more often than [she wins]” (Ivy 11:40). Andraya Yearwood also adds to this when she shares her experience on how she ran a lot of different events but did not win or place in all of them. She says that “no one talks about it […], no one write about that [because] it does not fit that narrative” (Yearwood 12:05). In certain cases, this can be true. In Lia Thomas’s case she did not win in her 200-yard-freestyle, she got 5th place, but along with these cases, there are still many where trans women who win overall or dominate in the sport. 

As explained at the beginning of this paper how Lia Thomas placed first in the 500-freestyle, there are many other trans women athletes that have also won their sports. Where there is not a specific set of data that tells people to amount of transwomen that have won at high competition levels. It can be shown through other sources that more often trans women win at a high level. Looking back at the past decade Grant Atkinson, from Alliance Defending Freedom, created a list of the different trans athletes that have won in the larger competitions. One of the instances that was on the list was in women’s cycling when a male athlete won a gold medal in the 200-meter sprint at the Masters Track Cycling World Championship in 2018 and 2019. Another example of this was in women’s powerlifting “a male powerlifter competed as a female and broke several records before being disqualified.” The reason why she was disqualified was that she entered the competition by putting female as her gender and no one in the competition questioned it. Later, when the president of the weighting lifting competition noticed that she was a biological male, her record titles were taken from her because competition groups were based on biological genders, so it was fair. The last example is in women’s mountain biking. “A male athlete who previously competed in the men’s Open division won back-to-back national championships in the women’s Elite division in 2018 and 2019.” These are just a few examples of how trans women have won in a women’s division competition. 

3. Not wanting trans women in sports is not an attempt to get rid of the trans community. 

The next claim, “It is an attempt to stop making us exist” (Ivy 2:28), is mentioned in the first couple minutes of the video. When asked why people who are normally supportive of trans people seem to “lose sight of all of that when sports come up” (Duaime-Ross 1:42) Veronica Ivy states that she thinks it is largely “about controlling trans people’s lives” (Ivy 1:55). Right after that, Veronica Ivy explains that the “controlling” is about “pushing us back into the closet to the point of eradicating us” (2:02). This is where the claim from Veronica Ivy, “It is an attempt to stop making us exist” (2:28), comes from. Even though this statement is bold, it is a common feeling among some trans athletes. In an interview, with Reuters, Ricki Coughlan, one of Australia’s first transgender athletes in running, explains the hate that the trans community gets is like there are “forces of hate that are out there don’t want transgender people to exist in our society.” While this feeling is real and is felt, it does not always mean that it is what society is trying to make trans-women athletes feel. 

This claim can not be scientifically proven right because it is how Veronica feels. Veronica says the statement like it is what every trans athlete feels but it is not. She is just speaking off of her experience and not accounting for the fact that some trans athletes do feel included in their sports. When listening to this claim there is an underlying idea that trans athletes aren’t being included, which again is not true. Joshua Safer, from the National Library of Medicine, proves that “at elite levels of competition like the Olympics, rule-making began in 2003 with 2 goals. The first goal was to include transgender people in competition as part of an overarching inclusive Olympic and other elite international athletic organization to engage in physical activity.”  If the world was trying to push trans people back into the closest the Olympics wouldn’t have made a rule allowing trans athletes into their identifying section of sports. As a compromise for both sides of this argument, David Close and Emma Tucker from CNN, the U.S. found that the “World Aquatics created an open category for transgender athletes at a World Cup event in Berlin.” To show the trans community that the world isn’t trying to “[push them] back into the closet” The Washington Post took a survey asking people if the transgender community is bad or good for society (Ivy 2:09) (see Fig. 2). As shown, about 41% of people think it is good and 35% do not care. These stats show that the world does not want to shove transgender people “back into the closet” (Ivy 2:09).

Fig. 2. Statistics show that a good chunk of society socially accepts transgender people (Bahrampour et al.) 

4. Having different gender groups for sports is a good thing.

The idea that different gender groups for sports are bad is discussed throughout the video. Before going on to the topic of sports being gendered Veronica Ivy and Frankie De La Cretaz talk about how it all started with the discussion of gendered bathrooms. Frankie De La Cretaz claims that “[sports] because it is so highly gendered like bathrooms are a really easy place to target” (2:55). While this is true and spaces like these are easy to target, there is a reason they are gendered. Adding on to this, just like separating genders in bathrooms, sports are not only separated by gender but most sports are separated by age. This is so there is not a young 12-year-old against a 32-year-old. Wrestling is another sport that creates different groups like weight groups so that the competition is fair. Another example of good separation is the separation between able-bodied athletes and those who have disabilities. It is to keep the competition fair. 

While the different gender groups are to keep fair competition it is also for the safety of anyone competing in the sport. Damita Menezes, from NewsNation, reported that “[t]he girls were told that they had to undress in a locker room with a man that they were not comfortable doing.” During this time Lia Thomas was taking feminizing hormone therapy which just meant that she was slowly turning into a woman while still having the male parts. Making this situation uncomfortable for both Leah and her teammates. Another reason why having different gender groups in sports is good is because it encourages women to be more participating in sports. The National Library of Medicine found that “female-only divisions are a major factor in encouraging greater participation of girls and women in sport with a goal of equal participation rates.” Overall, this claim that having gendered sports groups is bad is false. 

5. Testosterone provides advantages that make trans women better in sports.

Another topic that is discussed throughout the whole video and still in today’s media is whether or not testosterone is why trans women are better in sports. In VICE News’s video, they state that testosterone is not a reason why trans women are better in sports. Starting from when Frankie De La Cretaz talks about how some sports are now suggesting “very intrusive medical tests or genital exams”’ to determine if an athlete is a female or not (22:40). Later on in the video the discussion continues with Veronica Ivy saying “the truth of the matter is that there’s no relationship between your natural and Dodge’s testosterone and performance” (53:10). When she is asked why is there a gap between men and women in sports she says, “[M]y answer to them is […] at least part of it is sociological[…]. We separate sport based on gender from childhood and we tend to give better resources, the better time slots, the better coaching to the boys” (Ivy 53:38). While this can be true in the way that certain athletes train. Putting athletes together who train differently can show the weaknesses and strengths of each athlete. Along with this if you put a male and a female together who does the same training there is a difference not because of training. This raises the question: does testosterone have anything to do with the difference between women and male athletes?

Most importantly before the question is analyzed the speakers in the video must be addressed. None of these guest speakers have a PHD or any Medical school experience so their claims on testosterone are completely opinion-related and not fact-based. Now going back to the question, Joshua Safer from the National Library of Medicine, explains that “[m]any hormone-related physical characteristics acquired during puberty are not reversed if hormone levels are changed later in life.” Even if a male takes estrogen the male will not completely become a woman and he will still have some male attributes which can lead to an advantage in sports. Some of these attributes can be what was examined in section I of this paper. Dennis Welsman from the CATO Institute also claims that “[p]ost-pubescent males have 15 times the amount of circulating testosterone as post-pubescent females”, which means that there is a “10%-12% advantage” in running and swimming “and a 20% advantage in jumping events.” This also shows that any male who has transitioned after puberty has biological advantages that can not be taken away by taking estrogen. This is also proved by a study that was conducted and reported on by NBC News, which explained that “the first two years after starting hormones, the trans women in their review were able to do 10 percent more pushups and 6 percent more situps than their cisgender female counterpart.”

Conclusion

With all of this said, making sure that the claims you say to the Internet are true is important when talking about a controversial claim that can be taken in many different ways. While the argument whether trans women should be allowed in cisgender women’s sports might not ever be resolved it is important to remember the facts. Also remember that it is not an attack on the community itself, but rather a way of protecting what little space women have in sports.