Because taken to its logical conclusion, biology is unfair, but that doesnt give you the right to exclude better athletes from competition isnt a great argument for including Thomas in the womens division. policy. Swimming rules were adopted. He has never been anything but kind to me, and I have no negative words to say about John.". And some were heartened, too, by the I.O.C.s decision to emphasize human rights. Did a scientist put millions of lives at riskand was he right to do it? As of where the rules are at this moment, Im a little uncertain and confused. Lia Thomas spent a majority of those same hours training with the advantage of greater muscle density and bone mass, a larger. Outside of the McAuley Center, dueling protests dominated the morning. Motive Behind Her New Brand Saysh. Would we do it to allow trans athletes such as Thomas to compete as their authentic selves? A male body cannot become a female body. According to the report, Thomas' 500-yard time makes her the 15th fastest college swimmer in history, around nine seconds behind Katie Ledecky's all-time record set in 2017. ", Lia Thomas wins 500Y freestyle final (0:48), Thomas first transgender athlete to win D-I title, Recapping an eventful 2023 MCWS and a way-too-early look ahead to next year, Geauxmaha: LSU a fitting champion following the greatest MCWS ever, 2023 MCWS rewind: LSU wins first title since 2009, Source: SDSU plans to remain in Mountain West, AD: Harvard women's hockey not pushing hazing, IRS: Some nonprofit NIL groups may not qualify, Laws inspired by Nassar abuse signed in Michigan, D-I proposal would shrink portal window by half, NCAA updates gambling punishment for athletes, Tennessee State to be 1st HBCU with ice hockey, How a Jell-O shot challenge became the second-biggest event in Omaha, Omaha's Mardi Gras: LSU fans have made the MCWS their second home. Our stance as a coaching staff is we want our student-athletes to be comfortable and happy in the decisions and choices they make. direction and filmmaking. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images. Transgender youth are more likely to be homeless and live in poverty. That said, Oberlin has been a very welcoming place to transition, Draper said, from teammates to classmates to coaches. Sports are known to build self-esteem and leadership skills, and can be especially important for trans kids, the very people who are, in many places, being deprived of these opportunities. She added, I have not, however, formally withdrawn my name as a supporter of the group. She came out to her coaches. She is now conducting a longitudinal study of trans athletes during their transitions, measuring as many physical changes as she can. Katie Ledecky joins an elite club with another dominating performance Lia is going to go to the N.C.A.A.s, and shes going to take down Katie Ledeckys record, shes going to take down Missy Franklins record, and its not because she is an exceptional woman, he said. Over the course of the last 24 hours, my understanding of the rules to compete for my team have changed dramatically. football and sports like that are starting to follow suit, Bernie Compton, a doctoral candidate in leadership studies and director of soccer operations at Bowling Green State University, who works as a research assistant for Athlete Ally, told me. Full Spectrum Services LLP 2022 | All Rights Reserved. The difference is, trans women take medication to suppress testosterone, and as a trans male, Draper has been taking T for two months as part of his medical transition. Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images, Michael Phelps of the United States competed in. Ledecky's record time is 4:24.06 and there is a gap of 9.18 seconds. It was an eloquent response to the tidal wave of negative and demeaning articles about Thomas, including those published by the outlet where he once interned and wrote stories about a trans athlete and his own experience as a diver, under his birth name. announced its new approach, U.S.A. FILE - United States' Katie Ledecky poses on the podium with her gold medal in the women's 800-meter freestyle swimming final at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Aug. 3, 2012. Originally from Australia, theres one other thing that sets him apart at Oberlin: Hes transgender. She looked for scientific research into what she was experiencinghigh-level transgender athletes were uncommon, but not unheard of; the tennis player Rene Richards competed on the W.T.A. | A woman is not a disadvantaged man.. Katie Ledecky keeps on rolling more than a decade after her 1st Olympic I appreciate the NCAAs attempt to be inclusive of transgender athletes as a whole, but this approach feels very much like they are attempting to be removed from the blame if something goes wrong, Draper told me. | But, in 2004, she decided to begin hormone-replacement therapy and compete in the category of her gender identity, as a woman. It is not yet clear who will serve on that panel, and what criteria they might use. There should be no presumption of advantage from transgender status, the framework instructs, and any restrictions on transgender participation must be based on robust and peer reviewed research.. Hogshead-Makar has argued against laws that would ban transgender kids from all participation in sports, but her other positions, and the ways she talks about themshe insists on referring to biological genders, for instanceput her deeply at odds with those in favor of broader trans inclusion. ATLANTA, GA MARCH 17: University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas on the Eric Boehm Within two years, she was doing roughly as well against women as she had done before her transition, running against men. Then the pandemic started, and the season was cut short; the next season was cancelled altogether. After passing all of the NCAA's rules for trans competitors, Thomas shattered records this season for the Ivy League school's women's team. Thomas and Weyant went stroke-for-stroke in the back half of the race, but Thomas pulled away over the final 150 yards to win her first national championship. She looked for the race times of other competitive transgender female runners, and eventually was able to compare the times of eight women before and after transition. Some people worry that restrictions put in place by the I.O.C. arguing that Thomas should not be allowed to compete in womens competitions. Because in all honesty, what difference do my current testosterone levels make? Policy and Terms of Im not an expert on the science, but I am an expert in civil-rights law, she said. (0:48). At first, the I.O.C. Collegiate women's swimming and diving kicked off its NCAA Division I championships on March 16, and the season has been rife with controversy over Lia Thomas, the first transgender NCAA Division I women's swimming champion. Sure, we might argue, biology is one reason sports are separate, but winning isnt the only purpose of sport; it also teaches teamwork, self-discipline and important social values such as inclusion. And yet, Ive now written two columns about Thomas, and it is striking how many people almost all of them liberal have spontaneously erupted when I told them what I was writing about. They were immediately supportive, she said, and they stood by her when she decided to join the womens team. He never heard from Thomas, but others took notice. Lia Thomas is not the first trans swimmer in the N.C.A.A., but her victories have put her at the center of a debate about trans athletes. However, with Lia Thomas joining the womens swimming, the speculation about her breaking Ledeckys records is brewing rapidly. Female competitor speaks out saying it's 'IMPOSSIBLE' to beat UPenn What's forbidden, getting caught and punishment, Groups want 'fairness' over blanket trans policies, Thomas qualifies 1st in 500 free at NCAA champs. lite athletes have signed amicus briefings opposing restrictions on transgender youth and sports, and made public stands in support of trans kids. Hes been getting requests ever since he took a public stand in support of Thomas. Missy Franklin vs Lia Thomas- How Far Is the 22 - EssentiallySports Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Swimming introduced new, more restrictive rules, calling for three years of testosterone suppressionmere months more than the length of time that Thomas has undergone. Top court watcher: This term was marked by a broad expansion of judicial power, Israels incursion into Jenin is a bitter taste of things to come, On student loan forgiveness, Amy Coney Barrett makes a major statement, A governors playbook for improving youth mental health should catch on, Beneath the July 4 fireworks, remember Americas light, How Joe Biden can embrace Bidenomics without sowing division. After Franklin Pierce University (FPU) track athlete CeCe Telfer won a Division II national championship in the 400m hurdles in 2019, CWA filed a Title IX complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Education. This is not the first Title IX complaint CWA has filed in response to a prominent transgender athlete. One of Drapers biggest fears right now is what sporting organizations will do to fill the vacuum created by the NCAA passing the buck to national governing bodies, like USA Swimming, and the storm of criticism that the NCAA is, in the words of Swimming World Magazine editor-in-chief John Lohn, turning its back on womens sports., I also fear that with this backlash, governing agencies are going to issue a knee-jerk change to the policy that is overly limiting and unfair to transgender athletes, in an attempt to get out of the spotlight, he said. Ten days after his op-ed appeared, Swimming World published aresponse by Coach Linda Blade; Draper told Webb that when he read it, he cried. The Web site where millennial women judge one anothers spending habits. Laws against the participation of trans women in womens sports at the collegiate level have already been passed in eleven states, and more are being considered. Starting with the 2022-23 academic year, transgender student-athletes will need documented levels at the beginning of their season and a second documentation six months after the first. By denying trans kids that opportunity, especially because theyre in a vulnerable state when they come out, theyre trying to erase trans kids from existence., There are lite organizations that are working in a concerted way to be inclusiveeven, potentially, at the cost of competitive fairness. In swimming you want all round power. Im not saying testosterone is the only thing that matters, Harper said. In Texas, Thomass 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. Lia Thomas holds her trophy after winning the 500 yard freestyle at the NCAA women's swimming championship on 17 March 2022 (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports) Men and women typically have naturally. Our first and foremost goal is to win a national title.". The stark fact of biological advantage is as true of the distinctions between elite womens swimmers as it is of the divide between them and the rest of us. 7.5.2023 7:00 AM, Charles Oliver The focus on testosterone seemed, to many, straightforward: on average, men have testosterone levels around fifteen times that of women, and the competitive advantages of taking testosteroneat least exogenous testosterone, a steroidwere well established. But unlike areas such as respectful pronoun use, availability of gender-neutral bathrooms, and recognition of transition on legal documents, sports at the elite level are zero-sum. So, the fact that the NCAA has rules that allow her to do that, I think she was within her rights to do that, because that was what the rules laid out.. As trans women have fought for inclusion in womens sports, various governing bodies have implemented rules for mitigating any physical advantages that they might have. Since swimming and diving are classified as one sport by the NCAA, whose rules do they follow, USA swimming or USA diving if those rules end up presenting differently?. On the same day, a group of parents of Penn swimmers anonymously sent a letter to the N.C.A.A. But we still get along, and he respects me as a trained individual. of them even qualify for the elite NCAA Division I championships, let alone compete in the finals (limited to 8 lanes) or stand on the winner's podium (top 3 performers). Even her time in Thursday's 500 victory was nine seconds behind Katie Ledecky's 2017 record. 11-year policy of inclusion for transgender student-athletes. "We need to look at it as we're all competitors right now. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Our physicality is so exposed, he said. The N.C.A.A., six years later, took a different approach. In some respects, that era was just the beginning of womens sports: it marked the launch of the Womens Tennis Association, the passage of Title IX, and the first years that women were allowed official entry into marathons. She won the sixteen-hundred-and-fifty-yard freestyle by thirty-eight seconds. And this, in short, is the crux of difference between Thomass advocates and her critics: Biology is unfair. Yes, and womens sports exist to allay that unfairness.. The aim was to discuss legislation that would prohibit trans women from competing head-to-head with cisgender women in a number of collegiate sports, including swimmingperhaps even before Thomas had a chance to compete in the N.C.A.A. Notably, in the 2016-17 season, she would have come 12th. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); NEXT: Canceling an Artist Because He's Russian Is Nothing Short of Bigotry. She countered by sending me white papers by sports scientists, a PowerPoint presentation by a developmental biologist, and a statement on the significant role of testosterone in athletic performance signed by forty-one doctors and scientists. Our softball experts break down why Oklahoma is this good and who could end the OU dynasty in 2024, The Oklahoma dynasty: 53 straight wins, three titles in a row and zero sign of slowing down, OU softball joins list of NCAA title three-peaters, Cydney Sanders, Grace Lyons hit back-to-back HRs for Sooners, Jayda Coleman reaches over wall to make incredible HR robbery, Universities, NCAA see pros and cons of new state NIL laws, What are league rules around gambling on sports? Amidst the controversy, Lia Thomas has set quite a few swimming records in the NCAA championship. Yet ponder them long enough and you eventually realize that only one of them supports the case its proponents are trying to make. The W.N.B.A. Thomas led early, but was passed by Sullivan and trailed for most of the first half of the race. (Photo by Hunter Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. announced that it would not change its policies midseason. A day later, Thomas broke pool and Ivy League records in the two-hundred-yard freestyle; on the fourth day, she set a pool record in the one-hundred-yard freestyle. Others, though, pushed back against the I.O.C.s change of tone. it best: "We didn't create separate leagues to reinforce the special feminine identity of female athletes; if anything, women's athletics was supposed to break down such divisions. "I'm rooting for her. with inclusive policies dating back to 2018. (Her best five-hundred-yard time before her transition was about seven seconds faster than Ledeckys record.) This successfully put her in first place, followed by Emma Weyant. If one believes that we should distinguish between lite and youth sports, where does the line fall? Brooke Forde, a Stanford swimmer who swam at the Tokyo Olympics and will compete against Thomas in the five-hundred-yard freestyle at the N.C.A.A. So why does Thomass biology bother so many of us, while Ledeckys does not? In the interview with Sports Illustrated, Thomas was understandably reticent and guarded. The Penn athletic department sent reporters a statement from other members of the swim team, which seemed to imply that only a small minority of her teammates opposed her participation. It's honestly not a big deal, he said. If trans athletes have physical advantages, it appears these have been overwhelmed, so far, by social, legal, financial, and other disadvantages. Lia Thomas spent a majority of those same hours training with the advantage of greater muscle density and bone mass, a larger heart, and deeper lung capacity. Amid protests, Penn swimmer Lia Thomas becomes first known - ESPN The International Olympic Committee began allowing trans athletes to compete in 2004. Swimming also instituted a three-person panel that will decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether adolescent physical development has given a trans woman an unfair edge over cisgender female athletes. But Draper does have criticism for what the NCAA didnt say in its Jan. 19 announcement. required athletes to legally change their gender and undergo genital surgery, as if a mislabelled passport and the presence of a penis gave them a leg up on the competition. "The fact that she's able to show up here, despite protesters outside, people shouting and booing her, I think it's a testament to her resiliency. A postgraduate in She felt happy, she said, to compete, finally, as her authentic self., Few people paid attention when, in a meet against Princeton and Cornell, in November, she put up the seasons best times in the two-hundred-yard and five-hundred-yard freestyle races, and set Penn records. (Early contestants were warned that their reproductive systems might be damaged by long-distance running.) The letter was leaked to the Daily Mail, and conservative outlets gleefully reported on rifts between Thomas and her teammates. Katie Ledecky won the Women 1500 Meter Final. But the N.C.A.A. A few days after the N.C.A.A. As a former NCAA Division I swimmer, I've tried to calculate how much total time I spent swimming or training, and it's in the ballpark of 21,900 hours2 and a half years of my life. The precedent being setone in which women do not have a protected and equitable space to competeis a direct threat to female athletes in every sport. All of these need to signal to our athletes that our teams are safe places to be themselves. - Thomas placed first in the event. Save Women's Sports founder Beth Stelzer draped a vinyl banner with the organization's phrase over the railing. It was impossible to ignore the political context in which all this was happening: hundreds of bills have been introduced to restrict transgender peoples access not only to sports but to health care. 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. As Christina Roberts, a trans doctor of adolescent medicine, who has studied the physiological effects of testosterone suppression, told me, often the only evidence considered legitimate that trans women have lost a competitive advantage is that theyre no longer competitive..
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