Male Swimmer Shattering Records in Female Competition: Why Is This Allowed?

T he New York Times recently reported that “since 2019, nine states — all controlled by Republican lawmakers — have enacted legislation to ban or limit athletic participation by transgender students.” Despite such claims, American legislators are not banning transgender-identifying athletes from competing in sports. What they are trying to do is preserve single-sex teams. If, in this endeavor, the sex a person identifies as is considered irrelevant, it is only because the sex a person identifies as has no bearing on a person’s actual sex.

Take the recent case of Will Thomas, a swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s team between 2016 and 2019. Thomas took a break from swimming during the pandemic and, upon return, adopted a transgender name and identity, Lia. Last week, Lia Thomas made headlines for setting new female records in the 200-meter and 500-meter freestyle event during a swim meet with Cornell and Princeton. Sports website OutKick estimates that Thomas’s times — 1:43:47 and 4:35:06, respectively — would have earned Thomas second and third place in the NCAA Women’s Championships. Just one problem, if we dare mention it — Thomas isn’t a woman.

Consider the terms male/man and female/woman in their original anatomical context. Women are adult human females. They have XX chromosomes, have female reproductive organs, and produce eggs. By contrast, men are adult human males. They have XY chromosomes, have male reproductive organs, and produce sperm. Since sex is an immutable characteristic — and only superficial changes can be made to sexed bodies — no one can really change sex. Saying so is not bigotry. In fact, it is important to say so given that young women are being displaced and disadvantaged by the failures of so many in leadership to recognize this basic fact.

Sex isn’t just about chromosomes and gametes. Physical advantages are conferred on young men during the androgenizing process known as puberty. These advantages are irreversible. That’s why, in general, men exceed women physically in size, strength, and speed. That’s also why there is such a stark performance gap between men and women in sports. As Duke professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman has explained, even the world’s best female Olympic athletes “would lose to literally thousands of boys and men, including to thousands who would be considered second tier in the men’s category.”

The NCAA, as with other sports bodies, has tried to reach a compromise. They propose that a “trans female” — i.e., a biological male — is eligible to compete as a woman after undergoing a year’s worth of testosterone suppression. This is unsatisfactory for everyone. First, there is no evidence to suggest that suppressing testosterone can reverse intrinsic male advantages. In fact, research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine indicates that even after suppressing their testosterone for two years, “trans women” (i.e., biological men) retain a 12 percent advantage. Second, at the college level, such a standard encourages young people who may be confused or experimenting with their gender to begin medicating toward their preference.

In its press release, the University of Pennsylvania shamelessly boasted that Thomas “won the race by nearly seven seconds and her time was the fastest in the country,” yet failed to mention Thomas’s sex or even transgender status. Thomas told the student newspaper Penn Today in June that “being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport.” Which may be true. But being male most certainly has.

Allowing men to thrash women at their own sporting competitions is humiliating and unfair. When it comes to single-sex sports, male swimmers should stay in their lane.