Transgender Athletes: Navigating The World of Sports

Introduction

Growing up with a varsity swimmer in college dad, and physical education teacher mother, sports and healthy competition were of the utmost importance to me. I was always excitedly competing in swim meets, field hockey tournaments, track meets or intense games of kick the can in the backyard. The last time that I was home, an interesting topic was discussed at dinner as my mother brought up an article that she had read about marathon runner Paula Radcliff. Radcliffe has the fastest marathon time in the world and is a highly respected and celebrated British athlete. At the most recent Boston Marathon, it was allowed to have self-identifying transgender athletes (no body changes) to compete in the female category.

This ​announcement sparked a debate about whether transgender runners were getting easier access to the race due to an unfair biological advantage. ​This is something that Radcliffe spoke out about as the transgender athletes qualifying running times qualified them for the woman's running category, but were not fast enough to qualify for the men's category. ​Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Radcliffe stated that transgender athletes have “certain advantages that women will not ever get.” ​This story made my family question, is it fair for transgender athletes to compete in female sports. I am going to try and get to the bottom of this by exploring three different transgender athletes and their perspectives on being transgender athletes, but, before exploring these various athletes I believe that it is important to really understand the difference between men and women when it comes to their potential in sports.

Athletes Differences: Men vs. Women

Athletic differences between men and women are mostly due to the characteristics of genetics and hormones in the body such as height, weight, muscle mass, body fat, and aerobic capacity. The genetic and hormone differences give men an advantage as they generally cause men to have better strength, acceleration and speed. Although these genetic and hormonal differences seem drastic, they are often much overexaggerated. When it really comes down to body chemistry, there are a few key factors that are necessary to take into account. The first is Cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular fitness is measured by how well one's oxygen consumption is transported through the body. Studies have been done that show that male athletes have higher oxygen-carrying capacity than women. This fact allows men to be able to reach full exhilaration in what they are doing faster than women. This is due to lower hemoglobin levels and usually smaller body size as oxygen consumption is directly related to body size and mass. Next, strength plays a factor in the difference between men and women athletically. Males have a higher ratio of muscle mass to body weight, which makes them stronger and allows greater speed. On average, women only have two-thirds of the strength of men. This is a genetic factor and not because women do now work as hard.

Keep in mind that woman's muscles are not as strong, it is just hard for women to have less body fat to weight. Bones and Ligaments also vary from man to woman as males commonly have longer bones. Having longer bones give a clear advantage in sports as it provides more area for muscle and more leverage. This gives men advantages in many sports, especially ones that involve kicking, or throwing. Like muscles in men's bodies, their ligaments are commonly stronger and not as relaxed as females ligaments. The next factor is endurance. Endurance is mostly identified by a body's efficiency when converting consumed calories into energy to use in the body and is one area of sports where women have the advantage and compete in the same category as men. Women are more efficient when converting glycogen into energy rather than calories. Glycogen is energy that you body uses when glucose levels are low. This is evidence to why women perform particularly well in long-distance running and why ultra long distance running is commonly co-ed. These factors do not include the mention of what hormones affect a male body levels the playing field. After puberty, a males body goes through many changes physically. Men’s hormone levels are typically 10 to 15 times higher than women. Although there are few studies on how athletes bodies are affected by taking hormones, marathon runner, Joanna Harper provides some insight on the statistics about her body when going through her transition.

Transgender Athletes Perspective

The first transgender athlete I will be talking about is Candian cyclist Evelyn Sifton. In 2017, Sifton cycled her way to a third place finish at her debut fixed gear crit in Montreal. It was said to be a very proud moment for her although she had overarching feeling of dread. She felt weary for stepping onto the podium due to the opression aggainst transgender athletes from others who are either competitors of fans of the sport. Also at a recent triathlon she said to have received transphobic comments. She said the transgander athletes are bashed regardless of how they perform. “If we win a race, we have an ‘unfair advantage’; if we lose a race, we didn’t train hard enough,” she said in an interview with Men's Health Magazine. Even though there has been so much empowerment with trangender people and their growing community, it is a shame that there are still transphobic behaviours in sports. When it comes to rules in Canada reguarding trangender athletes in cycling, there are going to be some changes and the rules around transgender athletes are changing. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) will be requiring half of the amount of testosterone that is current allowed. The amount of testosterone will be changed from 10 nmol/L to 5 nmol/L. I think that the implication of this rule is somewhat vital to a fair competition. The genetic makeup of men is different from women.

The next transgender athlete that I will be talking about is Terry Miller, a 16 year old trasgender athlete who competes on the girls trsack team at her highschool. Her participation and success in the sport has sparked conversation in the local community. Terry places first in the 100 meter race at open state finals in June. She also won the top prize for the 200 meter race. She explains how in the ninth grade, she thought it would be more appropriate to compete on the girls team as she identifies as a female. She has begun hormone therapy, but the local governing body of interscholastic sports has been urged to allow students to participate on teams based however the athletes chooses to identify. Males do obtain certain biological advantages over females, however the use of hormones counteract these advantages. Science does show that estrogen therapy has changes on the body depending on the person who is taking it. There are still no regulations in regard to how much testosterone is required for trangender athletes. The rules surrounding transgender athletes does vary in America from state to state. In some states it is required that the played plays on the team by the gender that is stated on their birth certificate, or some require to have undergone gender reassignment surgery or extended hormone therapy. Mdeical research is unable to define the line in which there is a competitive advantage or weather it even exsists for transgender athletes. Needless to say it is murky water to navigate and there needs to be more medical research done to assess the fairness.

The last athlete that I am going to be discussing is Laurel Hubbard. Laurel is a 41-year-old transgender female and women’s power weightlifter. She is contending to compete in the 2020 games. She has taken home two gold medals and a silver medal at the most recent Pacific Games in Samoa. This sparked controversy among fans of the sport. The International Olympic Committee guidelines issued in 2015 said that any transgender athlete could compete as a woman as long as their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months prior to their competition. This regulation has suffered some criticism by some scientists who claim that it does little to mitigate natural biological advantages such as bone and muscle density. Even the people who strongly believe in transgender female athletes should be able to compete against cisgender women are not bug fans of this policy. The normal amount of testosterone for a woman to have in their body is 0.12 to 1.79 nmol/L. This basically means that transgender famela athletes could have low testosterone levels for a male but they are still significantly higher than the average females. People are suggesting that the testosterone levels should be lowered to 5.0 nmol/L for transgender female athletes.

Conclusion

When it comes to the bottom line, biological makeup of men and women, there are a lot of advantages that men have over women. The regulations for transgender vary from sport to sport and country to country. As far as what I think is fair? It’s hard to say. I am not a transgender athletes. I cannot understand the ongoing criticism and hate that they receive, nor do I understand their particular advantage. I honestly think that it the future, all sports will become co-ed. With the current social climate and the direction that it is pointing in, it is unfair to identify anybody based off of their body.

References

1. Moreau, Julie. 'No Link between Trans-inclusive Policies and Bathroom Safety, Study Finds.' NBC News, 2018.
2. Radcliffe, Paula. Interview on BBC Radio 4. 2019.
3. Rankin, Susan. 'Mind, Body, and Sport: Harassment and Discrimination – LGBTQ Student-Athletes.' National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2010.
4. Sifton, Evelyn. Interview with Men's Health Magazine. 2017.
5. 'UCI Announces New Rule for Transgender Athletes in Cycling.' Union Cycliste Internationale, 2020