Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who broke a number of college records this past weekend, is not a hero. She’s selfish.
Why do we separate sports by gender? Because the differences are obvious to anyone with eyes.
In a hard-fought swim meet in February of this year, Kieran Smith of Florida won the men’s 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4 minutes and 6 seconds, an American record.
A few days ago, Thomas set the women’s Ivy League record for the 500 freestyle, with 4 minutes, 34 seconds — 28 seconds slower.
Thomas competed as a male as recently as 2019. Up against Smith, he would have been destroyed. As a woman, she’s setting records.
Of course not all women are created equal, nor all men. But on the average, the physical differences are significant. The average American woman is 5-foot-4, 166 pounds. Men are 5-foot-9, 198 pounds.
Weight-lifting, track and field, marathon running — the world record in each is higher for men than women. Yet advocates argue that gender is only a state of mind and wave away physical differences as irrelevant.
Officials know this is a problem. That’s why the NCAA requires that transgender women be on testosterone suppressants for a year before they may compete. Yet even that rule ignores the fact that Lia Thomas, who transitioned around age 20, already went through puberty and already developed physical advantages.
Thomas argues this is about acceptance, and the media hails her victories as “progress,” but neither is true. We can accept Thomas as she is while recognizing that this is fundamentally unfair. Thomas must know she has the advantage yet still accepts the accolades — not very sportsman- or sportswoman-like.
Transgender advocates want gender to be irrelevant. Fine, let’s make the Olympics, the World Cup, the New York Marathon and Wimbledon all gender-neutral. Let’s see how many women win the top prize. Hey, it’s equality!
