Trans women are underrepresented at high levels of all sports. “If trans athletes have physical advantages, it appears these have been overwhelmed, so far, by social, legal, financial, and other disadvantages,” louisahthomas writes.
the idea that “testosterone is the miracle molecule of athleticism,” noting that different sports require different skills, and that “athleticism” is a catch-all term for a variety of abilities and characteristics. Others pointed out that sports never entail an even playing field, given the different resources, genetic and otherwise, that athletes have; naturally occurring testosterone can be considered part of the biodiversity of athletic talent.
There was a logic to the I.O.C.’s shift: Olympic sports vary enormously; what makes sense for archery may not make sense for the long jump. And some were heartened, too, by the I.O.C.’s decision to emphasize human rights. “Valuing inclusion and non-discrimination, first and foremost—I think that’s really what’s important,” Schuyler Bailar, who became the first openly trans swimmer to compete in N.C.A.A.’s Division 1, told me.
In January, the N.C.A.A. announced a new “sport-by-sport approach to transgender participation” in athletics, dropping the blanket requirement that trans women undergo a year of testosterone suppression, and leaving specific policies up to the national governing bodies of individual sports. The N.C.A.A. described this approach as in alignment with the changes made, the previous fall, by the I.O.C. But the N.C.A.A. did not produce a new formal framework of principles to guide each national body.
Hogshead-Makar says that she is in favor of inclusion where the so-called legacy advantage of testosterone-driven puberty can be overcome—in marathons, perhaps, given that testosterone suppression can substantially reduce aerobic capacity and hemoglobin levels, or in sports like pistol shooting. “Lia’s times are the evidence that she has not mitigated,” Hogshead-Makar said, citing Thomas’s N.C.A.A. rankings when she competed against men versus her rankings against women.
Transgender youth are more likely to be homeless and live in poverty. They are more likely to experience violence, bullying, rejection, depression, and suicidal ideation. In Texas, Thomas’s home state, the governor recently instructed licensed professionals who work with children to report parents of transgender children to state authorities, who would investigate gender-affirming care such as hormone-replacement therapy as child abuse.
Thomas was seeded first in three events at the Ivy League Championships, in February. After the five-hundred-yard freestyle, in which she set a pool record with a time of four minutes and 37.32 seconds—more than ten seconds behind Ledecky’s N.C.A.A. record, but one of the best swims of the season, and Thomas’s best since Akron—the other two Penn swimmers in the final applauded as she was awarded her medal, and posed for pictures.
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