It’s almost time to delete my account so I am sticking my neck out to potentially getting blasted.
I will preface by stating that gender identity is not an issue for me. Be who you want, use whatever bathroom you want. Just wash your hands/paws/tentacles.
My ignorant question is: for transgender athletes in competitive sports, should records be categorized differently or asterisked? Isn’t it kind of like using performance-enhancing drugs?
I don’t mind about actually competing, however if someone had 5-10 years of hormonal growth advantage during puberty, even if they no longer have that advantage, it seems like a big gray area. Yes, someone could naturally have that chemical makeup. Similarly, some exceptionally elite athletes have genetic variations that give them natural physical advantage.
When I was in school I was decent at swimming, in the top 5% of men. If I competed against women I would be like top 0.01% and making a career out of it. Though, if I started setting records I don’t know how I’d feel about it, given my advantage.
Honestly, writing these thoughts down is giving me some existential dread. What does it mean to be human, and why? Does anything even really matter?
I hope everyone has a nice day and is kind to each other.
It should also be noted that a college athlete’s times and rankings would presumably improve every year. Freshmen competing against seniors are just less likely to win (in most sports at least). IIRC I saw an analysis of her rankings that indicated the jump was within normal bounds for year-over-year improvement.
No one goes from 500th to 1st year over year competing against the same people lol.
She swam for the men’s team 2019-2020 while undergoing hormone therapy. Then there was a year break because of COVID. Then she swam for the women’s team 2021-2022. The difference was over two years.
EDIT: Actually, the 500th place stat was from 2018-2019, so it was over three years.
EDIT 2: Also, she went from 554th to 5th. The other two are basically not even worth mentioning since she went from 65th to 1st and 32nd to 8th over three years.
EDIT 3: Also, regarding your “the same people” bit, a large chunk of the people she’d have competed against would have graduated and been replaced by underclassmen. This is how college works.
Incorrect.
Lia Thomas jumped up from around 500 in mens to 1 in womens while having slower times than when ranked ~500 in the mens. That says all that needs to be said.
The numbers you are using I’ve only seen from that letter made by people complaining about her, frequently posted everywhere by conservative sources. Also, it’s fucking obvious she’d have slower times. That is the entire purpose of requiring trans atheletes to be on hormones for a couple years.
EDIT: I’ve looked into the 462 number more, and I’m further convinced it’s either made up or not an official ranking (i.e. from some practice run). Also, if you’re gonna pull some random quote, give your source. One of the very first results when I search “lia thomas 462” is the Daily Wire, which does not inspire much confidence in your sources. The other results are a Wikipedia quote from the letter I mentioned, and a random comment on the site for a swimming magazine.
You missed the point about the slower times. The point was that the times of a ~500 ranked male are faster than the times of the number 1 ranked female. You don’t see how this is a problem with trans men competing against women?
Thomas’ times only decreased by roughly 2-3% after transition. Male swimmers are on average 10-15% faster than women’s. This shows that male physical advantage doesn’t just disappear, as should be obvious simply by looking at the physical differences between males and females.
It’s obvious you don’t actually have a researched opinion since you just used the wrong term for a trans woman (they said trans men, in case they edit it).
You seem to, once again, be ignoring that on top of the decrease from transitioning, they are still a human being, and thus age and practice like any other human being. From sophomore year to their redshirt senior year, they grew, trained, etc. like any athlete. Expecting them to just drop 15% or whatever from their sophomore time and never improve from that is completely idiotic.
Where?
edit: oh I see, you think that because I said this:
It invalidates my entire opinion? Replace “men” with “women” since it’s clear what I’m talking about, as I have used the term trans women to refer to MtF trans people many, many times in these comments. Come on mate, grow up.
I didn’t ignore any of that lol. You’re missing the point. Again - 500th ranked male time is faster than all female times. Post “transition”, still faster than all females. Went from a “bad” mens swimmer to the best womens swimmer while swimming basically the same times as pre-transition. There’s nothing to say that even if Lia didn’t “transition” that he would have improved his times.
I literally wrote in the parenthetical which term you used. Are you blind?
I think I’m done. You’re just repeating conservative talking points without actually thinking about what you’re writing. Lia Thomas was never a bad swimmer. As mentioned, the improvement in her rankings was within normal bounds for three years. You’ve also curiously avoided noticing how the other rankings were below 1st despite her starting at a higher ranking in men’s competitions. Likewise, none of her times have ever blown away the competition. She didn’t set records. The 1st place finish isn’t even in the top 50 all-time for NCAA.
I feel like I’m talking with my relatives who voted for Trump. Given that you don’t even have the decency to use the correct pronouns, kindly go fuck yourself conservacuck.