For my next two Civic Issues Blogs I am going to be focusing each one on a different aspect of the issue. Rather than take a side and argue for change, I am going to investigate some of the major arguments from both sides. This week I will be looking into the argument that allowing transgender women to compete in sports is unfair and compromises the integrity of women’s athletics. Next week however, I will be focusing on the mental health impacts of trans athletes as well as the general rights issues that come with excluding trans women from competing for women’s teams.
Recently, we have heard and seen a lot of people making comments about trans women competing for women’s sports team. The most recent and relevant situation has been within the U Penn swim team with athlete Lia Thomas. Lia first competed for the men’s team before transitioning in 2019, undergoing hormone therapy requirements, and joining the women’s team in 2020. While there has been a large amount of support for Lia, others are concerned that she has an unfair advantage over other swimmers. People are concerned that allowing a trans woman to compete on the women’s team is undermining the hard work of other cisgender athletes.
Many prominent athletes and Olympians have made statements about Lia and trans swimmers and athletes in general. One prominent comment came from Caitlyn Jenner who won gold in the 1976 Olympics in the decathlon as Bruce Jenner prior to her transition. Speaking of transgender women competing in sports at the elite level she stated:
“Number one, biological boys — I’ve said from the beginning — should not be playing in women’s sports. We need to protect women’s sports.” While Jenner said she respected Thomas’ decision to “live her life authentically,” she added later that “her respiratory system is bigger. Her hands are bigger. She can swim faster. That’s a known” (ABC News).
These statements from Jenner showed the perspective of someone who has gone through the same process. While there are many who support Thomas full-heartedly, there are many who side with Jenner and believe she has an unfair advantage over cisgender women. Even though some people feel that transgender women have an unfair advantage, many of the people with this opinion do not know what to do about the issue. Oftentimes they want to support the trans athletes but feel that the issue of integrity in women’s sports impacts a larger amount of people. Michael Phelps fell into this category when interviewed. He had the opinion that transgender women had an unfair advantage, but admitted it was an extremely difficult situation to navigate. He stressed the importance of keeping an even playing field.
Phelps stated, “I believe that we all should feel comfortable with who we are in our own skin, but I think sports should all be played on an even playing field,” he said. “I don’t know what it looks like in the future. It’s hard. It’s very complicated” (New York Post).
Going off what Phelps stated, many people have adopted the viewpoint that they support trans athletes and trans mental health but feel this can not spill over into athletics. Some feel that trans women should continue to compete as men, but this pushes a question of trans mental health that I will explore in my next post. Many people feel this view is hypocritical because if you are supporting a person as trans, you can not pick and choose when and when not to support them. Some activists even believe this view is simply a way to mask transphobia. They argue that trans women are women in every aspect, including athletics, and that saying otherwise is harmful to their self image and threatens the validity of trans people in every aspect of life.
Another point that people argue supports that trans women have an unfair advantage is the discrepancy in rank of athletes like Lia pre and post transition. When she was competing on the men’s team pretransition, she was a very talented swimmer and athlete, but it was not until she transitioned and began competing for the women’s team that she began breaking records and winning a significant percentage of her races. This is the main information that people use to build a case against Lia. They believe that this proves she is now at an added advantage. This makes sense in some aspects, but it is also vital to consider other aspects of the situation. I will dive more into the mental wellness part next week, but one key factor is that Lia is now in a better place mentally and can focus more of her energy into swimming. Another critical point to remember is that when competing for the men’s team, she was doing well as an underclassman with little collegiate experience. Now as an older swimmer with more experience, it would be expected that she would improve.
It is exceedingly difficult to determine the cause of her improvement relative to the field, but it is important to consider all aspects. It is certainly possible that she has a physical advantage over other swimmers simply because she is a transgender woman, but it is also possible that other factors went into her improvement. This issue is extremely difficult to navigate due to the lack of data and the potential to make statements that hurt or offend people on all sides of the issue.
Many swimmers on her team have made anonymous statements that they believe Lia has an unfair advantage, but many are afraid to come forward for fear of being disciplined for discriminating against their teammate. The Ivy League as well as the NCAA have made statements that they fully support Lia and that she has followed all of the transition guidelines, qualifying her as a legal competitor. It is great that Lia is receiving support, but it is important not to silence other athletes who want to voice their opinions on the issue. It will be very interesting to see how this blog ages and what decisions are made about transgender athletes in high levels of competition.
Lia Thomas is certainly not the only person who this is affecting, but she has become the face of the movement, and is a great example of all of the controversies that go along with the topic. While she may be paving the way for future trans athletes, the abundance of positive and negative attention could be extremely harmful to her personal mental health. This is not something to be overlooked and I am excited to look into it more next week.
Citations:
Glasspiegel, Ryan. “Michael Phelps: NCAA’s Lia Thomas Issue Shows Need for Level Playing Field.” New York Post, New York Post, 20 Jan. 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/01/17/michael-phelps-ncaas-lia-thomas-controversy-very-complicated/.
Levenson, Eric. “How an Ivy League Swimmer Became the Face of the Debate on Transgender Women in Sports.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/us/lia-thomas-transgender-swimmer-ivy-league/index.html.
Rieder, David. “Lia Thomas, Transgender Swimmer from Penn, Swims Fastest Times in Nation; Controversy Raging.” Swimming World News, Swimming World, 11 Dec. 2021, https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/lia-thomas-transgender-swimmer-from-penn-swims-fastest-times-in-nation-controversy-brewing/.
Robinson, Adia. “NCAA Criticized for Changing Policy on Transgender Athletes.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 21 Jan. 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/ncaa-criticized-changing-policy-transgender-athletes/story?id=82380905.
Zeisloft, Ben. “Lia Thomas Sets Five Records, Honored as ‘High Point Swimmer’ at Ivy League Championships.” The Daily Wire, The Daily Wire, 21 Feb. 2022, https://www.dailywire.com/news/lia-thomas-sets-five-records-honored-as-high-point-swimmer-at-ivy-league-championships.
You’ve brought up some interesting arguments for this side! I’ve never swam competitively, so I don’t know the logistics of the situation, but I do wonder if trans-women competing in women’s swimming may have an unfair advantage. Especially with influential Olympians commenting on the issue, there is a pretty good argument there. However, with enough practice anyone can become better in their field, and everyone’s body is slightly different in terms of what would give them an advantage (regardless of gender). Are Lia’s improvements in her sport due to hard work or her transition? It’s hard to determine.
I totally agree with Eliza’s comment and I believe it is definitely a difficult issue to navigate. I understand both sides, a compromise is difficult too as it is hard to be respectful and fair to transgender athletes without potentially harming the fairness and determination of other athletes. Further, any aspects seen as “unfair” could simply be due to other factors, like you mentioned. Overall, I think more research and data need to be collected to see if there really is a competitive advantage. Its also important to consider how different sports are favorable to different genders so it may also be a disadvantage in some sports too.
Especially with an issue as sensitive as transgender women and athletics, it is very important to stay on middle ground, as Phelps mused. People are afraid to speak out and appear to have conditional support, but also afraid to fully support it knowing there is a clear advantage. Perhaps creating a new league is the route to go, but then there are not enough participants, and the cost is unruly. It is extremely hard to navigate touchy situations like this in the world of professional athletes.