New York Times cites experts from Mayo Clinic.
QUICK FACTS:
- A Mayo Clinic doctor admitted in a recent interview that transgender-identifying swimming champion Lia Thomas, a male, had a biological advantage over female competitors.
- “There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it; testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla,” the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Michael J. Joyner told The New York Times.
- Despite the University of Pennsylvania swimming competitor’s regimen of testosterone suppressants during a sex transition, Thomas enjoys unavoidable advantages, according to Joyner and other experts cited by the Times.
- Over the decades of competition, male swim record-holders have been 10-12% faster than female counterparts.
- Tennis legend Martina Navratilova is known to be an outspoken advocate for lesbians and told the Times that she also believes Thomas gets an unfair edge in swimming.
EXPERTS’ ASSESSMENT OF TRANS ATHLETES:
- “You see the divergence immediately as the testosterone surges into the boys. There are dramatic differences in performances. Gender cannot trump biology,” according to World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, an Olympic champion runner.
- “Activists conflate sex and gender in a way that is really confusing,” Harvard University Dr. Carole Hooven, author of T: The Story of Testosterone, told the Times. “There is a large performance gap between healthy normal populations of males and females, and that is driven by testosterone.”
- “Lia Thomas is the manifestation of the scientific evidence,” Dr. Ross Tucker, a sports physiologist, told the Times. “The reduction in testosterone did not remove her biological advantage.”
- “I played against taller women,” Navratilova told the Times. “I played against stronger women, and I beat them all. But if I faced the male equivalent of Lia in tennis, that’s biology. I would have had no shot. And I would have been livid.”
BACKGROUND:
- Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA Women’s Championships in Atlanta in March.
- Even around half of Thomas’ University of Pennsylvania teammates used the “unfair advantage” phrase when referencing Thomas’ win, according to some reports.
