The Olympic committee studied trans athletes. Conservatives won't like what it found.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/the-olympic-committee-studied-trans-athletes-conservatives-won-t-like-what-it-found/ar-AA1nsGXN?ocid=windirect&cvid=d513da4163e14def991df115260c09aa&ei=15
Opinion by Katelyn Burns (22 April 2024)
A groundbreaking study that was sponsored by the International Olympic Committee and released late last week sought to compare a range of athletic abilities between trans athletes and their cisgender counterparts. The finding that trans women athletes are at a relative disadvantage in many key physical areas relating to athletic ability and perform worse on cardiovascular tests than their cisgender counterparts could be the first step in fighting back against the conventional wisdom conservatives have spread that trans women's participation is inherently unfair.
But the study that the IOC commissioned, and the University of Brighton conducted, found that while trans women are stronger in some respects, like grip strength, cis women have stronger lower bodies. The study also found that trans women have a similar bone density as their cis women counterparts...
All the participants in this study participated in competitive sports or took part in physical training at least three times a week. The 35 trans athletes had to have completed at least one consecutive year of hormone replacement therapy.
It's just one study, so we should avoid drawing grand conclusions from it, but, at the very least, the study shows that the bodies of trans women who've been on at least one year of hormone replacement therapy are very, very different from cis men's bodies.
There is building evidence that trans athletes are not advantaged, and are even disadvantaged in specific areas. In the first 3 months of transition estrogen therapy, haemoglobin levels (so the ability to carry oxygen) fall to female levels. This means that trans women athletes can't produce more energy than cis women, and in fact, if the trans person has larger muscle mass, some of the oxygen is taken to keep the extra muscle alive, making the production of energy less efficient than cis women.
But this mostly affects sustained aerobic activities, meaning that in activities involving short bursts of strength, trans people may have an advantage (as indicated in the study posted). This indicates that a case by case assessment should be adopted to qualify athletes, and this should be applied to all athletes, not just trans athletes.
Hugs,
Allie
I have long been of the opinion that the eligibility of trans women or men to compete in women's sports should be determined on a sport-by-sport basis by doctors, kinesiologists. It would depend on the biomechanics of each sport whether there was an unfair advantage or not.
I believe that such a review would, in most sports, find that there is no reason to deny trans athletes the right to compete according to their gender. In some cases, there might be reasons to restrict them.
I am still convinced that it is all political posturing and bending to pressure. We don't see the same scrutiny over trans men competing against cis men. I am not saying it doesn't happen. But the media continues to fear-monger when "men" compete in women's sports.