Transgender athletes: where do they stand in professional sports?

Graphic by HARRY LADA, Art Director

On March 17, University of Pennsylvania student Lia Thomas became the first transgender woman to win the NCAA’s Division I national championship title in the women’s 500-yard swim race. Thomas finished with a time of 4:33.24 and beat Virginia freshman Emma Weyant by a margin of 1.75 seconds.

But, instead of being met with congratulatory remarks upon her success, Thomas was quickly confronted with criticism. Despite undergoing hormone suppression therapy during her transition, Thomas’ opponents contend that the swimmer still possesses masculine physical advantages such as increased height, arm length and muscle mass.

Kate Robinson, a sophomore strategic and corporate communication major and member of Chapman’s swim team, recently wrote an opinion piece about Thomas’ win, saying these advantages allow Thomas to pull more water with her hands and get off the starting block quicker than her competitors.

“It’s not fair because (Thomas) is a biological male,” Robinson told The Panther. “Yes, the NCAA has the testosterone suppressant treatment, but it’s only for one year and that does not get rid of the muscle mass (Thomas) has. She’s six-foot-one-inches; it’s not gonna change her height, and it’s not going to change how big her hands and feet are.” 

On the other side of the debate, supporters of Thomas believe that testosterone suppressants have lowered Thomas’ hormone levels to match those of cisgender women, which validate Thomas’ ability to fairly compete. 

As a result, supporters also point to the fact that she isn’t dominating all her races, like when she came in last place in the 100-yard freestyle, the final race of her collegiate swimming career.

“Physical differences and physical advantages are something that happen in sports all the time, and (do) not necessarily (have anything) to do with transgender individuals,” said junior political science major Lily Martin, who is also active in Chapman’s women’s and gender studies program. “For example, Michael Phelps has an extremely long wingspan. It’s actually longer than his height, which could be seen as a significant advantage, and he did dominate male swimming for so long. So, I don’t really see that as a problem.”

Ian Barnard, director of the LGBTQ studies program at Chapman, spoke to both sides of the issue, explaining to The Panther that scholars in transgender studies have critiqued the way contemporary sports are organized as a whole. 

Barnard pointed to a research article written by CJ Jones as an example, which dissects the various physical and socioeconomic advantages that each athlete has regardless of gender.

“The point that Jones makes is that there are so many different ways in which some athletes have advantages over other athletes; yet in the world of professional sports, this is all being codified into gender,” Barnard said. “But Jones says that some people have access to better training facilities than others, (and) some people come from more privileged backgrounds than others, so they can afford better coaches than others.”

Barnard stated that the argument around transgender athletes competing is currently focused on transgender women, and for those against Thomas participating in women’s sports, their argument centers around gender determined at birth.

“I think a lot of people really believe that you’re born a particular gender, and that gender determines fundamental differences between people, and that there are only two genders,” Barnard said.

In response, Barnard believes that the existence of intersex athletes causes this truth of two genders to be challenged.

There have been discussions around creating a separate category for transgender athletes, but Martin feels that this reduces the contributions of transgender athletes to their team.

“Not being able to actually work for your team and accomplish something for your team is not only not fair to the team as a whole, but not fair to (the athlete),” Martin said. “It diminishes their abilities and how hard they work and would deincentivize them to work as hard as they do.” 

One other solution that Robinson brought up is having transgender athletes compete in open exhibitions. 

Robinson recognizes that this may be unfair for transgender athletes, because they wouldn’t be able to score points for their team, but she said there’s more to these competitions than just scoring points.

“In exhibition races, most of the time, you don’t even really know that you’re in exhibition,” Robinson said. “I swim exhibition at SCIACs and it still felt just as competitive to me as someone who was scoring points for the team. Because (for) swimming, it’s so nice that you have aspects of ‘I’m going against myself, but I’m also going against the person next to me.’”

Regardless of the solutions proposed, the future of women’s swimming is sure to look different in the coming years. Martin believes that the future of women’s aquatics is moving in a more inclusive direction.

“I think that (more individuals like Thomas choosing to compete is) going to have a positive effect, just purely from the point of creating more trans visibility and just in terms of creating (a) more equal and fair (society),” Martin said. “I don’t think that it’s going to totally negate everything else that cisgender women have done.” 

In contrast, Robinson believes that the future of swimming will be impacted in a negative way if transgender women like Thomas continue competing in women’s swimming. Thomas plans on going to the Olympics, and Robinson believes that this will have significant consequences.

“I think (Thomas competing in the Olympics) will just cause a lot of people to want to quit the sport and not want to swim in college or go pro or anything like it,” Robinson said. “We could be losing out on some majorly good athletes if more and more people who are transgender continue to compete in the women’s division.” 

Though Robinson does not support Thomas partaking in women’s sports, she respects Thomas’ right to self identify.

“I don’t hate her. And I don’t think anyone on my side hates her, but we hate what it has come to; that she, a biological man, is competing against women,” Robinson said. “That’s all it comes down to. She biologically has advantages, but she should be able to live her life as whatever she wants to be.”

Martin recognized that in today’s political climate, there is a lot of polarization. But, she emphasized the importance of facilitating a conversation in order to get to the root of socially prevalent issues. 

“I think what needs to happen is a conversation about why this is such a concern,” Martin said. “Is it actually because people care about women’s sports and physical advantages that may or may not exist, or is it rooted in just pure discrimination? … (A conversation) could be the foundation for finding common ground and being more accepting of trans women competing in sports.”