Just a few weeks ago in Atlanta, Georgia, the top college-aged swimmers were pitted against each other at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Swimming Championship. On the minds of many swimmers was the participation of transgender athlete Lia Thomas. Since the 2020-2021 season, when Thomas received the green light to compete for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team, Thomas has been the subject of a fierce debate about the participation of transgender athletes in sports.
The issue, at its core, is one of fairness — whether Thomas, by virtue of being born biologically male, has an unfair advantage over biological females. Supporters believe she should be able to compete as her identified gender, arguing that Thomas has followed the guidelines set forth by the NCAA for transgender participation. Thomas’ detractors, however, argue she has an unfair advantage over biological females because she went through male puberty and benefitted from years of testosterone production.
Thomas began her college swimming career as a member of the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swim team. In 2018, she began identifying as a trans woman and by May 2019, she started hormone replacement therapy (HRT). On March 17, 2022, almost three years after she began HRT, Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I championship in the 500-yard freestyle with a time nine seconds off Katie Ledecky’s 4:24.06 world record.
This poses the question: what matters more in competitive sports — biology or one’s gender identity? From a biological standpoint, an argument exists that while gender identity can be changed, biologically determined sex, which is embedded in our DNA, cannot. The argument purports that sex is different from gender, and the realities of our sex impact our physical characteristics, such as lung capacity and bone density. Those who are biologically born as males, as determined by their DNA, have certain athletic advantages — they are bigger, stronger, and faster. To address this, various sports-governing bodies adopted guidelines to level the playing field.
To date, while the NCAA does not require gender surgery or legal recognition of transition, there are policies transgender athletes must adhere to. For example, trans-women athletes are required to undergo hormone treatments for at least a year before competing on women’s teams, while trans-male athletes are allowed to compete on women’s teams until the athlete begins HRT.
This past January, after Thomas broke University of Pennsylvania’s women’s records in two events, the NCAA updated its rules on the participation of transgender athletes, stating decisions would be made on a sport-by-sport basis, and the NCAA would defer to each sport’s national governing body. In a stricter response, USA Swimming updated its guidelines, enacting policies that require trans-women athletes to have three years of HRT and prove no competitive advantage over cisgender women exists to a panel of medical experts. The new requirement will be phased in over the course of the next few seasons; the delay allowed Thomas to compete at the March 2022 NCAA Swimming Championship.
While there’s still a question of fairness in whether a transitioned male or female athlete — who ultimately acquires the physical characteristics of their identified gender — retains some biological advantage as a fully transitioned athlete, there is a broader argument that is more compelling – one based on equity and inclusion. Even if the transgender athlete has an edge, the benefits of allowing transgender athletes to compete as their identified gender and not their biological sex far outweighs any question of fairness. A transgender athlete is no different than a cis athlete luckily born to parents who are tall, strong, and fast athletes. Is it any wonder that Alex Ovechkin, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, has a mother who was a two-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion in basketball and a father who was a good football player?
So, yes, there’s a chance that letting transgender athletes compete in competitive sports will create an inequality in competition. However, this is a sacrifice that must be made for the sake of inclusivity in the athletic community. If we adopt these guidelines, in the end, we all win.
