They believe he should be sidelined
The Washington Post admits some of the truth, which makes a change.
Sixteen members of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sent a letter to school and Ivy League officials Thursday asking that they not take legal action challenging the NCAA’s recently updated transgender policy. That updated directive has the potential to prevent Penn swimmer Lia Thomas from competing at next month’s NCAA championships,and the letter indicates the 16 other swimmers believe their teammate should be sidelined.
Thomas, a transgender woman who swims for the Quakers women’s team, competed for the Penn men’s team for three seasons. After undergoing more than two years of hormone replacement therapy as part of her transition, she has posted the fastest times of any female college swimmer in two events this season. The letter from Thomas’s teammates raised the question of fairness and said she was taking “competitive opportunities” away from them — namely spots in the Ivy League championship meet, where schools can only send about half of their rosters to compete.
And, of course, what they say is true. He is taking opportunities away from them. If he were a woman that would be fair, and what athletic competition is all about; since he’s a man, it’s not fair at all.
The NCAA swimming championships are scheduled for March 16-19, and Thomas has qualified for multiple events. She seemingly will be allowed by the NCAA to compete because it is phasing in its new transgender policy in three stages, the first of which covers this year’s championships in winter and spring sports.
People are oh so slowly starting to figure it out, but while they continue to stare in befuddlement Thomas will take advantage of their “phasing in” and “three stages” to grab his prizes while he can. What a fine principled generous young man he is.
No need for that measure, he can continue to swim in the male league. He mentioned that swimming was his passion, so I’m sure he won’t mind so long as he can continue doing what he loves.
So at some point in the future, what Thomas is doing right now will be called “cheating”. At the moment it’s not. What happens to all of his so-called “records” once his current path is blocked to future TiMs? What happens to those women he cheated out of prizes and awards right now?
Yes, he can do whatever men who don’t make the cut for the team do. It would be quite a change – and shock-
from his current, pampered, coddled, (dare I say privileged) position. Or he can pout, stamp his feet and hold his breath until he turns blue, and find out how far that gets him in the world of men’s swimming.
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it occurs to me often when the relative strength of males and females are under discussion. Britain’s most successful Olympian is Tanni Grey-Thompson, who happens to live in the next village to me. A few years ago, she was on the local news in a feature about wheelchair accessibility in practice. She was seriously struggling to get her wheelchair up the long ramp from the platform of a local station to the street. She had to hold onto the railings and haul herself up that way.
So naturally, within about a fortnight of being in a wheelchair, I had to give it a go myself. It was quite difficult, but not that difficult.
So to recap: She was a top wheelchair athlete for a quarter of a century, Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete ever. I’m a normal bloke who had been in a wheelchair for barely any time at all. I’m about three times her weight. We’re about the same age. I was using the crappy first wheelchair I got for about two and six off Amazon. She was in her expensive, properly balanced, made to measure one.
And I would have beaten her easily. There would have been no competition. These days, I could get up that ramp without much difficulty at all.
The very idea that male puberty alone doesn’t convey an enormous physical advantage could hardly be more starkly debunked.