The transgender participation debate is going nowhere - sports leaders must lead
PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
The US is dealing with its moment of reckoning in what I would clumsily call the transgender athlete participation space.
The story revolves around Lia Thomas, a 22-year-old transgender woman who is dominating Ivy League swim meets as a member of the Penn State team.
Axios has neatly summed up the story here.
As New Zealanders, we are familiar with the broad outlines of the issue after watching Laurel Hubbard qualify and compete as a weightlifter at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. The story sparked complex feelings, which I tried to wrangle in this, one of my last columns for the New Zealand Herald.
Because the Lia Thomas story is happening in the US, the stakes have got higher. The light is brighter, the font is bolder, the arguments more polemic.
With that in mind, I point you to Swimming World magazine. Here is the case for the defence, written by Lucas Draper, assigned female at birth who has transitioned to male and competes against men.
“Lia has faced enough media attention and does not deserve to be at the center of this issue. She has every right to compete as an athlete in the female gender. She is following the rules set out by the NCAA, and has jumped through the various hoops of medical and psychological testing they require, and for that, the attention should not be on her...
“We simply do not know the difference between skill and physicality. I have seen many races in my time where those assigned female at birth outswim those assigned male at birth, even when they have both received the same training. It happens all the time. So, why should transgender female athletes, who have gone through the process of hormone suppression be penalized, when the world of sports is so widely varied anyway? No transgender athlete wants to compete in their preferred gender simply because they could get an edge. We want to compete in that gender because that is how we truly identify. If you look at transgender women and get angry at them for competing, why do you not get angry at athletes with exceptional ability who identify with their sex assigned at birth?”
And the prosecution (or is it the other way around?), written by Dr Linda Blade, who co-wrote the book UNSPORTING: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport.
“Self-identity is not of primary concern in sports. What we care about is the fundamental biological blueprint that predestines an athlete to be either male or female from conception onward. The distinction between male versus female biological design is categorical; in the same way that, say, a Nascar vehicle is distinct from an F1 car in auto racing.
“Different design. Different category. Different races.
“No offense would be taken if somebody said: ‘Don’t put the F1 car into the NASCAR race.’ Why would it be any different with human bodies? For [Draper] to pretend that reference to an athlete’s biological blueprint is deeply offensive is disingenuous in the extreme. This is a conversation that we must have to preserve women’s sports!”
This is a conversation all the world’s leading sports bodies need to have and they need to have it with some urgency. The vexed topic is not going to go away.
Leaders need to lead.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
The Chris-Wood-to-Newcastle story is official. On Wednesday I outlined why Wood deserves a big move, but my reservations about the destination.
It prompted an interesting question from a reader (and NUFC supporter) about whether a fan should abandon their teams if they are vehemently opposed to the owners.
Probably not. It’s too hard. You just end up holding your nose and protesting against ownership in your own way if you get the opportunity.
Of all the teams in all the competitions I’ve loosely supported over the years, there’s only one I’ve abandoned, an NRL club beset by player behaviour problems that were too repulsive to ignore. It was made easier by the fact that at that point of my life, I had lost a bit of interest in the NRL anyway and there was an easy “home team” to cling on to when I regained my passion for the sport.
Newcastle is different in that the players have done nothing wrong.
As for Wood, I had a quick chat with my former colleague Stevie ‘One Touch’ Holloway, who played at Waikato FC with Wood when he was a teen making his way in the game.
“He was a man child, even at 14, 15, 16,” Holloway said. “In training I was given the job of marking him at corners and he kept scoring goals. I got a bollocking from coach Roger Wilkinson about letting a kid score but there wasn’t much I could do.”
Holloway said he watched Wood when he was playing for the St Paul’s Collegiate 1st XI.
“He was ungainly. He wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing player. He didn’t look more technically gifted than anybody else but he scored four goals because he had decent pace, great positional sense and timing and would run through a brick wall if it meant scoring.”
Wood himself has told reporters at his introductory press call that he never imagined any club would pick up his £25 million release clause.
“I knew the clause was sitting there but I don’t think anyone ever thought it would ever be triggered,” he said. “But that’s the way football can be sometimes… You never know, in six months’ time you might look back and say: ‘That was a great deal.’
“I’m under no illusions Newcastle is going to be a big challenge for me but I know it can be potentially great for the club and for me. I’m a firm believer that you have to get out of your comfort zone to achieve greatness – or some sort of great footballing talent.”
The Novak Djokovic will-he-be-deported story rumbles on. At the time of writing his visa status is still in limbo, with some outlets hinting that he will be sent home, while others are sitting on the fence.
While we wait, here’s a really interesting take on athlete selfishness from ESPN’s Howard Bryant, who says athletes who have been impressively active when it has come to social causes, have dropped the ball on Covid, with Djokovic at the top of the list but others like Green Bay Packers’ superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers and NBA legend LeBron James not far behind.
Ross Taylor stepped off the test cricket field for the final time as my BYC podcast colleague Paul Ford said, in the most ill-fitting yet entertaining way possible - by taking a wicket.
The guy is a dead-set New Zealand cricket legend, a global ODI great and a test cricket almost-great. Jarrod Kimber’s take on Substack was, as always, packed with excellent analysis of his career.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE*
If you’re a passionate football supporter, there’s every reason to get a lot of sleep on Saturday and do a double-header in the early hours of Sunday. The first clash is first meets second; the second is 19th meets 17th but, you know, Chris Wood.
Manchester City v Chelsea, Etihad Stadium, Sunday 1.30am, Spark Sport
Newcastle v Watford, St James’ Park, Sunday 4am, Spark Sport
There’ll be a full-cooked breakfast and strong coffee on the go as the Mairangi Bay netball fanatics meet to watch the Silver Ferns opening match of the Quad Series against Australia on Sunday morning. I’m going to traipse along to watch (the netball, not the eating), intrigued to see whether Noeline Taurua has firmed up her thinking around the best combinations to promote ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
Australia v Silver Ferns, London, Sunday 5am, Sky Sport 1
This is the best time of year to be an NFL fan, with a jam-packed slate of playoff games in the wild card round. The Bills meet the Patriots in an all-AFC East clash; the surprising Cincinnati Bengals and Las Vegas Raiders also meet, while Tom Brady keeps defying Father Time for his Bucs against the Philadelphia Eagles. But if you had to pick one this “weekend”, it’ll be two teams who share perhaps the most well-known moment in playoff history - “The Catch”.
Dallas Cowboys v San Francisco 49ers, AT&T Stadium, Monday 10.30am, Spark Sport and ESPN
Yes, the second of the pink-ball Ashes tests start in Hobart today - an historic occasion for Hobart. It’s the deadliest of dead rubbers though and there’s a far more compelling conclusion to a test series also happening tonight. The first two hours will decide the series with South Africa 101-2 chasing 212 to beat India on a tricky pitch. The series is locked at 1-1. The Super Smash is also reaching the pointy end and while Otago and Wellington are miles out in front in the women, the battle for playoff spots in the men’s is getting intense.
South Africa v India, 3rd test Cape Town, tonight 9.30pm, Sky Sport 3
Northern Brave v Wellington Firebirds, Whangarei, Sunday 1.40pm, Spark Sport
* Just a reminder that TWTWB is not intended as an exhaustive list of everything on this weekend, but are the events I’ll be keeping a close eye on. I do confess that the slow starts of the Breakers and Phoenix has dampened my interest somewhat, but we’ll take a more detailed look at their problems down the track.
I've not seen the argument for transgender athletes put so succinctly and in my view irrefutably before so thanks, Dylan. The Jarrod Kimber piece on Ross Taylor is wonderful, as always. Have a great weekend.