By Owen Fallon

The role of transgender athletes playing in sports at the high school and college level has developed into an ongoing debate in recent months. The issue was recently brought to major headlines after Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, placed first in the women’s NCAA championship 500-yard freestyle. 

Thomas was the 462nd ranked swimmer a few years ago, but she is now the 1st ranked swimmer in the world as a woman. This is a commonly used fact that people use to recognize the inherent physical and biological strengths that men generally have over women. It’s argued that these strengths provide an unfair advantage for the biological women that are not able to compensate for male strength advantages. Former Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner, who later came out as transgender, stated, “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”

Lia Thomas (left) on the winning podium following the championship. Photo credit: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.

Many female swimmers have gone public with their opinions on Thomas’ victory. Virginia Tech swimmer Reka Gyorgy stated, “I would like to critique the NCAA rules that allow her to compete against us, who are biologically women… it doesn’t promote our sport in a good way and I think it is disrespectful against the biologically female swimmers who are competing in the NCAA.” However, Gyorgy prefaced the critique with saying that she fully supports and respects Thomas as a human and swimmer. For Gyorgy, the problem lies in the NCAA rather than Thomas. Gyorgy also noted all of the attention and press that a transgender athlete winning brings to the table for the NCAA. She stated, “this week has been more about reporters, media and division in our sport than things like two women going under 21 seconds in the 50 freestyle, 3 women going under 50 seconds in the 100 butterfly and the first women IN HISTORY to go under 49 seconds in the 100 backstroke.” Gyorgy suggested that the NCAA takes more time to think about protecting biologically female athletes. 

Not surprisingly, conservatives were upended by Thomas winning, as issues of gender are being hotly debated in politics and media. Conservatives took the opportunity to demean the idea of transgender people and seemingly took their anger out on Thomas instead of the NCAA. In addition, they failed to recognize hormone replacement therapy and testosterone suppression as real counter-balancers to inherent strength. However, the issue is not as politicized as one might think, as many liberals have sided with conservatives in the protection of fairness in women’s sports. 

Cece Telfer running in the 400-meters hurdles. Photo credit: Rudy Gonzalez/NCAA Photos.

This isn’t the first time this issue has been brought to light, as it has come up with the International Olympic Committee, which has had numerous iterations of restrictions for transgender athletes. In 2019, track star and transgender woman Cece Telfer was ruled ineligible to compete in the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo. She did not meet the requirements, which included that her testosterone levels must be less than five nanomoles per liter. Telfer competed for NCAA Division II Franklin Pierce University men’s track team before her transition. Later, competing on the women’s team, she won the NCAA title in the 400-meter hurdles. 

Recently, many states have passed legislation that prevents transgender students at public schools from competing on their respective genders’ sports teams. The list includes Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. One example of state legislation is Florida’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.” In an attempt to justify the law, Florida governor, Ron Desantis stated, “the NCAA is basically taking efforts to destroy women’s athletics… If you are out protesting this bill, you are by definition putting yourself in favor of injecting sexual instruction to 5- 6- and 7-year-old kids.” These bans have received their fair share of controversy among the LGBTQ+ community and supporters. An ACLU article noted, “the truth is, transgender women and girls have been competing in sports at all levels for years, and there is no research supporting the claim that they maintain a competitive advantage.” Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director at the Human Rights Campaign, said that “the folks who are pushing these anti-trans bills… they don’t believe transgender people exist. They think they’re faking it for an advantage in sports.”

There is also the argument that excluding transgender athletes would only further stigmatize them in society. “They suffer from higher rates of bullying, anxiety and depression,” writes Stanford University psychiatry fellow Jack Turban. He says that “Claiming that transgender girls have an unfair advantage in sports also neglects the fact that these kids have the deck stacked against them in nearly every other way imaginable.”