Transgender Athletes | Teen Ink

Transgender Athletes

April 15, 2021
By Anonymous

     The average high school boy throws a shot put 48ft, while the average high school girl throws a shot put 10ft-22ft. In 2004, before a trans-woman (a born man who self-identifies as a woman) could participate in women sport's they were required to have genital surgery (surgery to change a man into a woman physically or vise versa) and had to take transfeminine hormone therapy (blocking testosterone and taking estrogen) for two years. However, that rule changed in 2016, they are now only required to take transfeminine hormone therapy for one year and have their testosterone levels below 10 nmol/l (nanomoles per liter) for one year. Trans-women should not compete in women's sports due to biological and physical advantages as well as it is not equitable for cisgender women. 

     Men have biological advantages that females do not have. The article “IOC delays new transgender guidelines after scientists fail to agree” states, “Women’s testosterone levels tend to range between 0.12 and 1.79 nmol/l, while men are typically between 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/l” (Ingle 1). Testosterone allows men to regulate bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass, and strength. Because women have less testosterone, they do not have these abilities. Testosterone starts kicking in around 12 years of age, and the effects are almost irreversible. The muscles and strength do not disappear overnight. Plus, testosterone allows men to regain their muscle mass very quickly from very little work. The article “USA Powerlifting Agrees to Mediate Dispute With Trans Athlete” by Kate Sosin states, “Competitors taking testosterone are barred from competition, even if those competitors are transgender men” (Sosin 1). This is holding double standards, assuming that trans men are taking their transmasculine hormone therapy (blocking estrogen and taking testosterone) trans men are not allowed to compete in men's sports. However, if men are taking transfeminine hormone therapy they are allowed to compete in women’s sports. If competitors taking testosterone affects how they compete. Having natural testosterone that is higher than all of the rest of the competitors leads to an unfair advantage. Men have testosterone levels that are still higher than that of a woman's even while taking transfeminine hormone therapy.

     Men also have physical advantages that occur during puberty that women do not have. In many ways, men have a different body structure than women. During the article “Trans Athletes are posting victories and shaking up sports,” Christie Aschwanden states in the article that:

Transgender women's performances generally decline as their testosterone does. But not every male advantage dissipates when testosterone drops. Some advantages, such as their bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size remain, says Alison Heather, a physiologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand (Ashwaden 1).

Having a larger bone structure allows men to run faster, jump further and leap greater distances allowing men to do most things to the extent that women can not. With men, greater lung capacity can have greater endurance to work longer and harder towards their goals. While having a larger heart may seem like a reason to worry, men's hearts grow larger as they age. While on the contrary as women mature their heart maintains its size or gets smaller. Men also have a greater muscle mass. This muscle mass gives men “An ability to regain muscle mass after a period of detraining—by increasing the number of nuclei in muscles, and these added nuclei do not go away. So transgender women have a heightened ability to build strength even after the transition” (Ashwaden 1) having been mentioned in the article mentioned before. Overall having physical advantages lead to severe differences in the way trans-women compete.

     One last reason why trans-women should not participate in women's sports includes, that it is unethical for the rest of the cisgender women that have been training and working for their achievements for most of their lives. One way this possibly could be changed is specified in the article “NZ researchers call for gender binary in elite sports to be abandoned” which is that they could create a third category for transwomen and intersex women (Anderson 1). The aforementioned would cause a more fair competing environment that everyone would feel more comfortable with. It would allow for people with one body structure to compete with the rest of the people with the same body structure. Kate Sosin states, “According to the organization’s regulations, trans women and others assigned male at birth must compete with men” (Sosin 1). This regulation could make them feel like they are not being listened to, but it will allow all the cisgender women to be heard. If, for any reason, they can not have different categories, they could then add a calculated handicap for the trans-women which would allow them to compete fairly in women's sports. In the end, one needs to imagine what cisgender women are thinking whenever they are shown up by a trans woman, with all of the muscles and the abilities that men have. Not only what the trans-women are contemplating and feeling when they are not allowed to compete in women's sports.

     However, some may argue that trans-women have no clear advantage over cisgender women. In the article “Transgender Olympians” by Joanna Harper:

Once again, the fear mongers have proven to be wrong. Even if a few female trans athletes competed secretly on their nation’s women’s teams, they didn’t make any noticeable impact at all in Rio. Instead of dominating, trans women were not even discernible (Harper 1). 

This shows that some people were worried that trans-women would shine through, and cisgender women would be able to place in Rio. However, not one person said that they were competing as trans-women during the games. They say that they did not stand out or make a difference when in reality they play a major role in the physiological side of things. When a single man competes against a hundred women they are more than likely going to beat all of the women. Because a trans woman comes out and throws as far as all of the guys can, amid all the women that throw as far as regular girls can. Trans-women winning against cisgender women leads to some hurt feelings and fewer women doing women's sports. Trans-women have an advantage over cisgender women.

     In the grand scheme of things, trans-women competing in women's sports is not fair for the other cisgender women, but men also have biological and physical advantages that women can never have. For the less than 1% of trans-women we are changing all of the rules to make them feel more comfortable and less like they should not be competing. But for the 99% of cisgender women, we are making them compete with what are men. The whole reason we have men's sports and women's sports is to separate things and to make it fairer for everyone, also so everyone can have a shot at winning. When we allow trans-women to compete in women's sports, it is overlapping men's and women's sports and making it men's and “women's” sports. Men could start lying and saying that they feel women with results of them moving to women's sports and have the advantages presented to them. Making women's sports a thing of history books.


The author's comments:

This peice is something that I am sure a lot of female athletes agree with and can maybe relate to. I had lots of fun writing about this and learning more about transgender people and what they have to do to become another gender. 


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