Megan Youngren to Become First Openly Transgender Athlete to Compete at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

truth be told. wrote:

Across wrote:

Nobody cares. Good for her!

Stop with the hate. Its toxic for everyone, including yourself.

It’s all fun and games and “Nobody cares”, and then they will break World Records and win major races. No way taking hormones can change all the fixed, biological features that are advantageous to men.

There isn't even the remotest indication transgender female runners will set WR's and win major races. June Eastwood ran the equivalent of a 4:08 mile as a guy and barely broke 5:00 in a recent meet. Do really expect a world class male runner to want to transgender?

The only question that matters is “Is this athlete following competition rules and on hormone replacement therapy within IOC guidelines for at least 2 years?”

Otherwise, nothing else matters. A man isn’t going to ‘compete as a woman’ just to win medals; it would require an A-list male athlete to compete as an A-list female athlete if he is going to undergo hormone replacement therapy. A 13:50 guy undergoing HRT would likely end up a 16:10 woman.

Foot in the door wrote:

Won't make the team but it sets the precedent.

In 2028 when a transgender is challenging for a spot, the argument will be, you've always let transgenders compete as women, why is Brogenia Austin any different? You just hate transgender.

(sorry Brogan, I'm just picking out a random dude that would crush the women's field)

A transgender female should run against females. If she gets a spot, fine. She’s a woman. If she wins a gold, fine. She’s a woman.

Clown World Resident wrote:

David S wrote:

If 1% of the US population is transgender then it shouldn't be a surprise that one out of hundreds of female Olympic Trials qualifiers might be transgender.

1% of the population isn't transgender. Give me a break. That would mean there are 70 million transgenders in the world.

I think the actual percentage is 0.1%, but I believe there have been studies that range from 0.03-0.6%. Regardless, I don't think it is enough of a statistical phenomenon to start letting biological males compete against biological females.

Wasn't there already a female to make transgender who competes in the walk trials?

Typical, man stealing a woman's glory...wait...

SDSU Aztec wrote:

There are many posts like this, but it takes a lot more than merely identifying as a woman. The hormone treatments are no joke and can slow someone down by 30 seconds a mile.

You and other sick people would pay to watch Tyson put a woman in a coma, but promoters are not going to schedule a fight that normal human beings don't want to watch.

I agree that was an inhuman comment about Tyson. I would keep the gender categories in combat sports for humane reasons. However, in a sport like distance running I don't really see any reason these days to have gender categories. The person undergoing gender transformation probably has more biological disdavantages than actual women given all the surgery and hormone therapy involved. Put someone like Bekele on cancer therapy and he is going to be running a heck of a lot slower. Open competition seems the best way forward but you could have gender/transgender categories for statistical interest but not for prize/appearance money or national team selection. This would bring distance running in line with the real world.

2018 Kenai River Marathon - 4:04:26

2019 California International - 2:43:52

Is there any biological woman (so without secret testosterone storage) who has ever progressed in this way at 27 years old?

So because transgender athletes may become an issue (and I do agree that it could become a serious problem) you think cancelling all elite women's sport is the best way to counteract this problem?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:

Has Sally Bergesen weighed in on this one yet?

This was my first thought.

My second thought was what would Kara Goucher have thought if she learned today that she had finished behind a biological male in Vaporfly prototypes at the 2016 Trials,

Across wrote:

Nobody cares. Good for her!

Stop with the hate. Its toxic for everyone, including yourself.

I agree.

Be nicer to them.

At least they are trying.

They could be at home drinking 28 Molsen Canadians in a 3 hour time period.

I haven't seen the very masculine females who identify as male opt to compete in the men's shotput. Why is it a one way tranniegender street? Macho females want to compete with females, and feminine males want to compete against females.

Letsrun on the Olympic Trials: "Most of the guys in the US trial are slower than Brigid Kosgei, they're a waste of space"

Letsrun when a girl wants to compete: "What's wrong with you, you can't just follow all the steps that USATF/IAAF/NCAA lays out for you and compete!"

Y'all seem dedicated trying to stop as many people from participating in our "dying sport". If you kick all the sub elites out, eventually we'll only be left with the 40 minute 5k group.

Actually, if she won a medal, it would most likely finally reveal the ridiculousness of this whole notion and put an end to it.

I'm not sure if it would, look at what happened with cycling.

Also look at boxing - incredibly dangerous.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/transgender-female-boxer-gives-female-opponent-concussion-breaks-her-eye-so

matt_london_413 wrote:

Across wrote:

Nobody cares. Good for her!

Stop with the hate. Its toxic for everyone, including yourself.

I agree.

Be nicer to them.

At least they are trying.

They could be at home drinking 28 Molsen Canadians in a 3 hour time period.

I would rather they do that than compete against a bunch of women as a male.

The Bootie Judge wrote:Tyson vs Rosie O'Donnell would sell out MSG!!!

This is not 1995, sorry. It might be time for you to look for new pop culture references.

If someone wants to cut off body parts or enhance body parts, go for it, nobody should care. However if you are born a Man, no matter what you do you are still a Man and you should not compete in sports against Woman. End of story. Transgender is a word it is not a gender.

This issue lies under the radar for now, as the litigation only involves high school athletes. But this will explode when a 2:10-2:20 biological male marathoner decides to run as a transgender female athlete and starts actually taking medals and prize money from biological females.

Once someone goes through puberty, the biological differences are there, for good. And the part that makes this issue so difficult is that the changes that result from puberty are very much individualized. It's next to impossible to create one size fits all regulations for transgender runners that would level the playing field, because each individual is different.

Dwightarm wrote:

The only question that matters is “Is this athlete following competition rules and on hormone replacement therapy within IOC guidelines for at least 2 years?”

This is actually my point, no-one knows because while rules exist and were completely watered down from requiring athletes to actually be completely transitioned, now the rules are almost meaningless and are on some kind of vague "honor system" even at the national level?

So even those meaningless rules aren't being enforced. This athlete has been taking a banned medication for several years by her own admission and USATF hasn't monitored her by their own admission.

Either enforce the bare minimum rules or don't pretend and just do lip service.

You can't just say "well she can't win overall so we aren't going to enforce any rules".

I'm not even going to dwell on the concept that because she's not completely transitioned, she could change her mind, stop taking all medication, revert over a few months and complete as a man in 2024 if she wanted. Everything she is doing is temporary and reversible.

Just enforce the bare minimum rules on the books. That's not an absurd demand.