The Obvious Solution for Transgendered Athletes

We need two more categories for surgically or hormonally altered competitors

The latest headlines about transgendered athletes feature swimmer Lia Thomas, who is reportedly 6’4” tall and just won three freestyle swimming competitions in the women’s Ivy League competition, much to the annoyance of many athletes who were born female and continue to compete against athletes of that sex. 

Thomas was born male, and competed against male swimmers up until May 2019 when Thomas began taking female hormones. 

Thomas seemed to be mediocre as a competitive male swimmer. According to this CNN article, Thomas’s times in the 500-yard and 1650-yard freestyle, swimming against male competitors, placed Thomas in the top 100 in the country. 

According to this article, Thomas ranked only #462 among male competitive swimmers in the US.

I assume that CNN is seeking to build up Thomas’s reputation as a male swimmer, but it looks as though the closest thing to victory that CNN could cite was an occasion in 2019 when Thomas took second place in the Ivy League championships. Since the competition seems to take place in March of each year, this must have been before Thomas began taking female hormones. 

Thomas did acknowledge that after starting on the hormones, it was “awkward and uncomfortable” being required to compete against men, and “her [sic] speed suffered as her muscles weakened from the hormone therapy.” 

Thomas admits that after two-and-a-half years of hormone treatment, “her raw times are significantly slower than they were before her transition.” 

Nevertheless, because women generally have significantly slower swimming speeds than men, Thomas’s new slower speed was sufficient for Thomas to triumph over the field of women who were born female. 

There are many who say this is unfair. I’m one of them. Thomas had many years of maleness in which to build a masculine body, with masculine height and muscles. These don’t suddenly disappear simply because a person starts taking female hormones. These advantages are enduring, and give Thomas an edge over the women that Thomas competes against. 

Is there a solution? Of course there is. Since the world consensus now seems to be that there are more than two genders (I’ve read some sources saying there are as many as 64), there should be more than two categories of competitors. 

I don’t think there needs to be 64 categories, since I don’t think it makes the slightest difference to your athletic capacity whether you prefer having sexual activity with males, females, or any of the other 62 genders. 

However, I do think it makes sense for there to be separate categories of athletes for those who purport to have transitioned from male to female, or vice-versa, by surgically mutilating themselves or dosing themselves with unnatural amounts of sex hormones, and thereby changing the physical structure of their bodies. 

This would mean that males who receive female hormones and have their genitals surgically removed should compete against other males who’ve done the same. 

Likewise, women who purport to have transitioned into men should compete in a category for people in similar circumstances. (Yes, there actually are some, although it looks as though not many of them continue competing in the sport they previously excelled at as women.)

Introducing extra categories like this would eliminate any incentive to “change genders” in order to gain an edge over your competitors who did not change genders. 

Personally, I find it incomprehensible that any person would want to surgically alter his or her external sex characteristics in order to compete in sports (or for any other reason). But then I’ve never cared much about athleticism. However, maybe I’m being too hard on those who have undergone such surgery. Maybe they really did have other motives, and weren’t merely trying to cheat in their sport. My proposal that they compete separately, against those who are similarly situated, would remove the suspicion of wanting to cheat that would otherwise hang over them. 

Please note that I have avoided the touchy subject of pronouns in this article by simply using Thomas’s surname over and over again in places where I would normally use a pronoun. It makes the writing a bit stilted, but it avoids a big argument over such nonsense. In direct quotations, I have used the pronouns as they were used by the writer I’m quoting. 

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