Given the fact that we are now seeing transgender people competing as women in US high school sports without treatment, I started day-dreaming today as I was working on a section for the Week That Was.
"If Ashton Eaton pulled a Caitlyn Jenner (but didn't have hormone treatment like Jenner), how many gold medals could she win?"
I'm thinking a ton.
Just looking at his PRs, it's clear the sprint events and hurdles would be easy for him so that's the 100, 200, 400, 100h, 400h. He wouldn't have much of a problem with the pole vault, high jump or long jump either. Oh yeah, he'd obviously easily win the women's heptathlon. That's 9 golds. Given how fast he is and how good he is in the long jump, we assume he could win the triple jump as well but maybe he should hold off until 2020 to try to learn this new event. But that's 10 golds.
In the throws, it's hard to compare his PRs to the winning marks at the Worlds/Olympics as the implements are different sizes but we're definitely giving him gold in the shot put. So that's 11. We forgot about the relays. Give him two more golds for the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400.
In the javelin, his PR of 66.64m is close to the 67.69m winning mark from 2015 Worlds and the women's javelin is 25% lighter (21 ounces versus 28) so it seems like he'd have a good shot there. That being said, a throws coach we talked to said in some ways it's harder to throw a women's javelin than a men's as it's like throwing a paper airplane and thus he'd have to learn a totally new throwing technique. We're not sure about the discus where his 47.36m pb is way off the 69.28m it took to win Worlds last year but the women's discus is half as heavy as the men's.
We think it's very safe to say Ashton Eaton could win at least 10 gold in women's track and field alone. If we were advising Eaton, we'd tell him to focus on going for at least 10 track golds in 2016. Even if he slipped up in one of the events where we think he could win gold in, he'd have a shot at a medal in the 800 as well. Then in 2020, we'd urge Eaton to expand his horizons. Do you not think he'd be dominant in boxing, rowing, weightlifting, and wrestling? We even think he'd make an excellent winger in soccer. Even if his skill isn't the best, he'd make an amazing offensive sub with his speed as he could get a breakaway or finish set pieces.
When you add it all up, 15, maybe 20, gold medals isn't out of the question. Of course, he might once again be playing second fiddle to Michael Phelps once again as Phelps would win virtually every women's gold medal in swimming.
What do you think? How many could Ashton win?
If you are a swimming expert, please tell us how many women's gold medals could Phelps win in swimming?