Is it Fair for Transgender Women to Compete in Women’s Sport? LILIA

TRANSGENDER WOMEN IN FEMALE SPORT: FAIR PLAY?

By Lilia

According to guidelines in late November 2021 from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), transgender women are no longer required to reduce their testosterone levels to compete in women’s sports. Consequently, there has been some controversy as to whether this is fair.

There are several reasons why many people view the IOC’s new guidelines as unfair. Most obviously, this is due to the physical advantage males have over females, especially without the need for testosterone reduction. Transgender females naturally have more testosterone levels, which research has demonstrated, increases muscle size and strength, enhances aerobic endurance, decreases fat mass and accelerates recovery from high exertion. These factors all enhance performance hugely. Moreover, taking testosterone to improve performance is illegal, further enforcing the extent of an advantage this creates. However, testosterone levels are not the only factor that gives transgender women an advantage, proving that even when testosterone levels are reduced, transgender women competing in sport can still be viewed as unfair. For example, the haemoglobin levels in transgender females are also naturally higher, allowing for more oxygen to be transported to the working muscles and therefore improve performance. Furthermore, 45% of a male's body is muscle tissue, whereas this statistic is 36% for women. This gives men a huge physical advantage over women. For example, Britain’s fastest female runner, Dina Asher-Smith holds a personal best of 10.83 seconds for 100m but is still slower than the under-15 boys’ English boys record of 10.8 seconds.

On the other hand, many people believe that the new guidelines are fair, and far more inclusive for transgender people. The IOC have included transgender women in female sport since 2004, and since then, there has not been a single medal won by a transgender person. This suggests that transgender people might not have as great an advantage as many people presume. In addition, ciswomen have their own natural advantages over other ciswomen, such as having stronger muscles for weightlifting and longer legs for sports such as high jump in athletics. Therefore, it could be argued that the advantages transgender women have over ciswomen are the same as those that ciswomen have with each other. Moreover, some examples show that transgender women are not always necessarily stronger than women. For instance, Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand was accepted into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and failed to lift 125kg, resulting in her not being placed. However, she was 43, so she was much older than all her other competitors, which may have influenced the result.

In conclusion, I believe that although the new guidelines of the IOC are more inclusive, there are still concerns that need addressing. I would say that it is important that sporting competitions are fair for all competitors. This debate needs to be part of further research as the evidence at present is mixed.

REFERENCES

www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20210715/do-trans-women-athletes-have-advantages www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/transgender-olympian-laurel-hubbard-fails-win-medal-olympic-debut-rcna1568 https://thehill.com/opinion/international/582651-understanding-new-olympic-guidelines-for-trans-athletes www.insider.com/ioc-trans-women-shouldnt-reduce-testosterone-to-compete-at-olympics-2021-11 https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00118.2006#:~:text=The%20differences%20between%20the%20sexes, of%20body%20fat%20than%20women www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/nov/16/trans-women-should-not-have-to-reduce-testosterone-say-new-ioc-guidelines