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Some people think it’s unfair because they claim my body developed differently than many other women’s bodies. But women come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, and some elite cyclists are even bigger than me. I’m six feet tall and weigh 190 pounds. Dutch track cyclist Elis Ligtlee, an Olympic gold medalist, is taller and heavier than me at 6 foot 1 inches and 198 pounds. She towered over Kristina Vogel, who at 5 foot 3 inches and 136 pounds, was the more accomplished track sprinter. Bigger isn’t necessarily faster. While they were still competing, these women were clearly much faster than me. I wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Every elite athlete has competitive advantages. Some are physical; consider the 2016 Olympic women’s high jump final. The average height of the gold, silver and bronze medalists was 6 foot 2 inches. Ruth Beitia, at slightly over 6 foot 3 inches, won gold. The woman who tied for 10th, Inika McPherson, is 5 foot 5 inches tall. And we consider a 10-inch difference in height in an Olympic high jump final to be fair.
Other advantages are social or economic. Some athletes have access to the best coaches, the best equipment, the best facilities, and others don’t. Some athletes are better at tactics, or better at pushing through pain and discomfort. We already permit huge competitive advantages and call them fair, even within women’s sport.
If you think I have an unfair competitive advantage, consider this: I lose most of my races. I won five out of 22 events in 2019; none of those I won were against strong international fields. The woman who took second place to me in the masters world championship sprint event, Dawn Orwick, beat me just days earlier in the 500-meter time trial. In the 12 times I’ve raced against Jennifer Wagner, who finished third to my first place in the sprint event in 2018, she beat me in seven. Wagner has beaten me more times than I’ve beaten her, head-to-head. How can I have an unfair advantage over her if she beats me most of the time? And why should my right to compete be contingent on not winning?
The Union Cycliste Internationale currently follows the International Olympic Committee’s policies on gender. Trans people have been welcome in the Olympics since the I.O.C. first adopted a trans-inclusion policy in 2003. The I.O.C. updated their policy in 2015 to make it possible for trans people to compete without genital surgery.
Since the 2004 Athens Olympics, there have been over 54,000 Olympians. Not one of them has been openly trans. There also weren’t any cases of men pretending to be (trans) women.
Next year, there are a few athletes who have the potential to become the first openly trans athlete to compete in the Games. None are a medal favorite. This is not the beginning of the end of women’s sports.
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