Women’s sports are under attack – and we’ve been seeing it for the past year or so. Women are suddenly not the ones winning in a women’s sport. Instead, it is transgender women who are coming in first place and walking away with the gold. Transgender women, however, are simply men who have decided that they want to identify as a woman – and often so that they can be at the top of their game.
While some sports require that a transgender woman has at least a year of hormone therapy or test at lower testosterone levels, it still doesn’t account for basic biology.
Biological men are stronger, faster, and have more endurance.
In team sports, transgender women are often “lost” among the other players. It’s the individual sports where we see women continuously losing – and we have seen this more in women’s swimming than in any other sport.
If something isn’t done, and soon, we’re going to lose women’s sports altogether. After all, what would be the point in any biological female busting her buns and working day in and day out to become the best only so that she can lose to a male who is confused about his gender?
Now, it appears that women’s sports may actually get preserved – and that’s because the World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) is stepping up to initiate a change.
The WSCA has a number of interests, which includes providing recognition for outstanding swimmers, standardized rules and regulations for swimming organizations, and encouraging swimming competitions that are free of drugs and other methods of performance enhancement.
That brings us to Lia Thomas, the biological male who has been swimming for Penn State. And, as Swimming World published, “Soared from a mid-500s ranging in men’s competition to one of the top-ranked swimmers in women’s competition.”
We can’t possibly believe that Lia Thomas became that improved of a swimmer. It’s just that the competition wasn’t as fierce when competing against other biological men as it is against biological females.
The WSCA has recommended that there’s a way to preserve the integrity of women’s swimming. It used to be that it was determined by sex. However, now it is ruled by gender identity – which doesn’t exactly use science to make those determinations.
The online letter explains in a letter to its members that “You will be aware that the WSCA Board have spent a significant period of time since the commencement of 2022 in drafting and re-drafting a Position Statement to aid FINA in constructing their own Transgender Policy.”
They want to have either a female division and an open division or a female division, a male division, and an open division.
Essentially, if you are not a biological male and not competing in the men’s division, you would fall into the “open” division.
It’s fair. If you’re not going to identify your gender as your biological sex, there has to be some give and take.
Swimming isn’t the only sport that is realizing that it’s time to make some changes while also protecting the integrity of the sport for biological females.
Many road races are adding a third category for those who identify as “nonbinary” so that there is no discrimination.
WSCA is trying to be inclusive, which is one of its key pillars. However, they are also resolute in the fact that “categorization through birth sex remains to be the most useful and functional division relative to sporting performance.”
For biological females who swim competitively, we certainly hope that the WSCA is able to gain some traction. It’s the only fair way to be inclusive.
