As of January 2023, Henig has been on testosterone-based hormone therapy for eight months. He most recently swam at the 2022 Ohio State Invite, where he was 79th in the 50 free (22.07), 73rd in the 100 free (47.94), and 69th in the 200 free (1:45.86). Those times are slightly slower than his personal bests while swimming for the women’s team.
That article makes it sound like Henig isn't training and trying nearly as hard as Henig did when Henig was on the women's team and still had good chances of winning and placing. Seems like in making the switch to the men's swim squad, Henig has lost a lot of the competitive drive that previously caused the athlete to want to succeed and personally excel in the pool:
“...I’m not as successful in the sport as I was on the women’s team,” Henig said. “Instead, I’m trying to connect with my teammates in new ways, to cheer loudly, to focus more on the excitement of the sport. Competing and being challenged is the best part. It’s a different kind of fulfillment. And it’s pretty great to feel comfortable in the locker room every day.”
Hobby Jogger: Henig's comments have reminded of what you said on another thread about what you believe to be the two sexes' very different motivations for doing sports.
In case you've forgotten, you said basically that boys and men go out for sports because they really, really want to win and are focused on turning in their best performances.
But you said that girls and women do sports not to win and excel personally, but instead for social reasons like hanging out and having fun with our friends, obtaining the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a team, learning leadership and how to work with others, and enjoying the satisfaction of seeing our friends achieve their goals and be happy.
Seems to me that in switching from the women's swim team to the men's at Yale, Henig has abandoned the drive to win and excel personally that Henig previously displayed and which you regard as a distinctly male trait.
At the same time, Henig has clearly adopted the "I'm just here to connect with and cheerlead others and experience the camaraderie that comes from sharing the locker room" attitude you regard as distinctly female and you say is what motivates us female people to do sports.
Seems to me that Henig's sea change in attitude totally undermines the position of gender identity ideologues - which is that with or without exogenous testosterone, Henig is a man and must be regarded by others as a man because Henig supposedly thinks manly thoughts, has manly feelings and acts in manly ways due to having a supposedly manly brain, soul, spirit, inner essence, whatever, that causes Henig to "identify as" a man.
That article makes it sound like Henig isn't training and trying nearly as hard as Henig did when Henig was on the women's team and still had good chances of winning and placing. Seems like in making the switch to the men's swim squad, Henig has lost a lot of the competitive drive that previously caused the athlete to want to succeed and personally excel in the pool:
“...I’m not as successful in the sport as I was on the women’s team,” Henig said. “Instead, I’m trying to connect with my teammates in new ways, to cheer loudly, to focus more on the excitement of the sport. Competing and being challenged is the best part. It’s a different kind of fulfillment. And it’s pretty great to feel comfortable in the locker room every day.”
Hobby Jogger: Henig's comments have reminded of what you said on another thread about what you believe to be the two sexes' very different motivations for doing sports.
In case you've forgotten, you said basically that boys and men go out for sports because they really, really want to win and are focused on turning in their best performances.
But you said that girls and women do sports not to win and excel personally, but instead for social reasons like hanging out and having fun with our friends, obtaining the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a team, learning leadership and how to work with others, and enjoying the satisfaction of seeing our friends achieve their goals and be happy.
Seems to me that in switching from the women's swim team to the men's at Yale, Henig has abandoned the drive to win and excel personally that Henig previously displayed and which you regard as a distinctly male trait.
At the same time, Henig has clearly adopted the "I'm just here to connect with and cheerlead others and experience the camaraderie that comes from sharing the locker room" attitude you regard as distinctly female and you say is what motivates us female people to do sports.
Seems to me that Henig's sea change in attitude totally undermines the position of gender identity ideologues - which is that with or without exogenous testosterone, Henig is a man and must be regarded by others as a man because Henig supposedly thinks manly thoughts, has manly feelings and acts in manly ways due to having a supposedly manly brain, soul, spirit, inner essence, whatever, that causes Henig to "identify as" a man.
1. Henig identified as male when he competed on the women's team.
2. As a D1 varsity athlete, Henig was at the very top of his sport by definition.
3. Most athletes at the top of their sports are highly competitive, whether they are male or female.
4. While Henig knows he won't win anything important, he still pointed out how he didn't finish last.
5. One case does not undermine any theory. Henig's case is especially irrelevant to 95+% of athlete who never compete at such a high level.
6. Henig's time is slow because it is early in the season. It will get faster as the season progresses.
I wonder how this person would have performed without exogenous testosterone?
Henig probably would have come in dead last.
Plus even with high testosterone circulating from hormone therapy, biological females xx don't have androgen receptors like xy males, and didn't go through male puberty.
Plus even with high testosterone circulating from hormone therapy, biological females xx don't have androgen receptors like xy males, and didn't go through male puberty.
Just to be clear: both sexes have androgen receptors - and estrogen receptors too. It's just that male and female ARs and ERs differ in number, nature, location and function.
Taking testosterone will cause a female like Henig to gain muscle, redistribute body fat, grow facial & body hair, develop acne & worse body odor, grow thicker vocal cords & thus get a deeper voice. But testosterone won't change Henig's underlying skeleton/bones, shoulder width, pelvis shape, femur angle/Q angle, tendons, muscle fibers, internal organs and so on. T won't cause Henig's heart, lungs, throat, thorax, rib cage & chest to grow as large and as powerful or to have the same morphology as a male of the same size, weight and fitness level.
There's no way Henig can get around the fact that a male will have a throat that is 40% larger and thus capable of taking in a lot more air, lungs that are 10-12% larger and a heart that is 25-38% larger - all of which make a huge difference in a sport like swimming.
At the same time, taking testosterone will unfortunately put Henig at risk for a great many health problems that can lead to poorer quality of life and a considerably shortened life span. These include painful vaginal & uterine atrophy, pelvic floor dysfunction, metabolic syndrome & diabetes, liver problems, stroke, and 2x the risk of cardiovascular disease as a male of the same age.
You're wrong, idiot. Someone getting 79th out of 83 is not "competing" at all.
Letesenbet Gidey is a great athlete, but her PR (the world record) would place 22nd in a tactical 24 man race
While if she ran her 62:52 half marathon record against the best 24 men in the world, I agree that she might only finish 22nd. However, if you put her 62:52 in a race against 24 randomly chosen elite men, she'd definitely beat more than 2. Some really exceptional men only run 63 if they have a terrible day.
Hobby Jogger: Henig's comments have reminded of what you said on another thread about what you believe to be the two sexes' very different motivations for doing sports.
In case you've forgotten, you said basically that boys and men go out for sports because they really, really want to win and are focused on turning in their best performances.
But you said that girls and women do sports not to win and excel personally, but instead for social reasons like hanging out and having fun with our friends, obtaining the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a team, learning leadership and how to work with others, and enjoying the satisfaction of seeing our friends achieve their goals and be happy.
Seems to me that in switching from the women's swim team to the men's at Yale, Henig has abandoned the drive to win and excel personally that Henig previously displayed and which you regard as a distinctly male trait.
At the same time, Henig has clearly adopted the "I'm just here to connect with and cheerlead others and experience the camaraderie that comes from sharing the locker room" attitude you regard as distinctly female and you say is what motivates us female people to do sports.
Seems to me that Henig's sea change in attitude totally undermines the position of gender identity ideologues - which is that with or without exogenous testosterone, Henig is a man and must be regarded by others as a man because Henig supposedly thinks manly thoughts, has manly feelings and acts in manly ways due to having a supposedly manly brain, soul, spirit, inner essence, whatever, that causes Henig to "identify as" a man.
1. Henig identified as male when he competed on the women's team.
2. As a D1 varsity athlete, Henig was at the very top of his sport by definition.
3. Most athletes at the top of their sports are highly competitive, whether they are male or female.
4. While Henig knows he won't win anything important, he still pointed out how he didn't finish last.
5. One case does not undermine any theory. Henig's case is especially irrelevant to 95+% of athlete who never compete at such a high level.
6. Henig's time is slow because it is early in the season. It will get faster as the season progresses.
Presumably-unambiguous biology indicates that Henig is a woman. Please stop lying with the masculine pronouns and perpetuating this poor young woman's self-delusion.
The real story here is that a number of NCAA swimmers are getting "chicked."
In the sprints, no less.
Just quit.
From the linked article (which uses masculine pronouns for Henig): "As of January 2023, Henig has been on testosterone-based hormone therapy for eight months." She's doping.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.