In Reply to: Transgender females in female sports posted by DCfan on November 28, 2024 at 08:28:49
Sports is about competition, and competition is based on fairness. When it comes to sex, here’s an excerpt from the America College of Sport Medicine:
“Biological sex is a determinant of athletic performance: adult males are faster, stronger, more powerful than females because of fundamental sex differences in anatomy and physiology dictated by sex chromosomes. Before puberty, sex differences in athletic performance are minimal.”
If we accept that statement, we must conclude that fair competition would pit males against males, and females against females. That’s the first step in ensuring fairness.
Sometimes, we implement a second step to ensure fairness: size categories. We don’t see featherweights fighting heavyweights - a match like that would be no contest.
Another type of second step would be an age category: we have Master’s competitions in swimming, golf, etc.
The point is that competition is based on fairness. And yes, some people are physical freaks - check out the vastly different body types on display at each Olympic games. You’ll never mistake a cyclist for a weightlifter, etc.
And that’s what you see at the highest levels of competition: some people are physically exceptional, perhaps in terms of height, or muscle mass, or the size of their hearts & lungs, etc. A lot of that is genetic, and even with extensive training, no one can revise their genetic make-up.
To me, the question is simple: the separation of sexes is essential to fair competition.
However, the difficult part occurs in those rare conditions when a person is biologically intersex, such as Caster Semenya of South Africa. And that’s a different conversation….