The development comes after a presentation to the International Olympic Committee by its medical chief, which highlighted the potential physical advantages of competing in women’s sport after being born male.
To give everyone some perspective on the BS behind these transphobic bans: professional darts and professional chess both have trans bans. It’s never been about fairness in sports
Why should chess and darts be treated differently? There’s evidence that males have an advantage in darts:
https://www.mdx.ac.uk/news/2023/2/linda-duffy-darts-psychology/
Given how many sports that males have an advantage in, it certainly seems reasonable to have sex-based competitions as the default.
They should also ban tall people from playing basketball. They have a potential physical advantage over short people.
No, they should get rid of men/women split and divide people into tiers. Each athlete would be assigned to tier based on his performance and we would have gold, silver and bronze medals in each tier. We would then say “Phelps won a Tier A gold medal in the Olympics” or “Williams won Tier D gold medal”. This way it would be 100% fair and non-discriminatory.
… its not the same at all. And no I won’t explain all the reasons why.
Tall people were born tall. It would be unfair for a person born tall to identify as short and play short people basketball.
if they got surgery to reduce their size would you be okay with it?
It was a reductive, simplistic example.
How about this?
A trans woman college swimmer. There is nothing stopping her from competing in men’s swimming. She decides to compete in women’s swimming events instead and beats every woman in the district in every race. Is that fair? Who is it fair to? Is it fair to all those girls who worked their entire lives, who spent evenings and weekends in the pool to become elite women atheletes to be beaten by a trans woman?
If Lance Armstrong decided, at the peak of his performance, that she was a woman and entered every women’s cycling event in the world and set world records that no woman could ever match would that be fair? Is that fair? Who is if fair to?
If Carlos Alcaraz decided today that she was a woman and entered women’s tennis competitions and easily beat every other woman who entered would that be fair? Who would it be fair to?
If you took an Aston Martin DB12S and put an MGB body on it and entered it in classic car hill climb competitions would that be fair?
So the effort trans women put in to compete doesn’t count for anything, people just decide to transition to win sporting events, and trans women are men with a different body. Wow, you really hit the trifecta of shit takes.
Wow, those are quite the arguments I put forward in your head. I notice that you didn’t adress any of my questions about fairnes.
If you want to have a conversation please answer my questions. If you just want to hiss and spit I’ll take a pass.
Sorry, it’s not worth having baby’s first “what is a trans person” conversation with you, which would be clearly needed before delving into the nitty gritty. Take that pass! Go somewhere else.
There are no legitimate questions about the fairness of it:
https://www.genderjustice.us/commentary/trans-athletes-are-not-the-real-threat/
“In fact, after hormone therapy, trans women’s performance aligns with cisgender women’s performance.”
The key bit there being “hormone therapy”.
Your notion that men choose to compete as women so they can dominate is absolute, complete, 100% transphobic bullshit.
That’s not the way ANY of this works.
The real question to ask is why Republicans want to ban hormone therapy.
Tall people were born tall.
The tallest baby ever born was 28 inches tall. That’s 2’4”.
I’m not tall, but I’m taller than that.
I put it to you that babies are born short and grow over time.
Dont try and speak logically about this
The Olympic committee has had well established rules on transgender athletes for decades. This change is ridiculous. They might as well go back to chromosomal testing for athletes. It makes as much sense as this nonsense
The Olympic committee has had well established rules on transgender athletes for decades
What are they? The article says “leaving it for each sport to decide themselves.” which doesn’t sound consistent.
I’m not sure but I will comment anyway.
I believe each sport’s federation has rules they decide themselves and those are normally used but sometimes the Olympic Committee will ban a federation because of corruption or some mismanagement and take over organization of those specific events. They did it with boxing in the previous Olympics for example. When they do it they have to decide which rules will apply and looks like now they decided the default rules for all sports that fall under their jurisdiction. Last time with boxing they decided to use the same rules that were used 4 years earlier which meant some previously banned athletes where allowed to compete and a lot of participants complained.
Hmm. “Established” is factually correct but I’m not sure “well established” is a good description.
Watch them ban transgender women and clowns like JK Rowling STILL accuse cis women in the Olympics of being trans
I mean they still say that about Imane Khelif so
This is just an excuse to attack trans people under the guise of fairness. It’s horrible
Weird how it’s only about trans women and never trans men.
I don’t think it’s that weird. The men’s competitions don’t forbid anyone from competing if they can qualify. Cis women are allowed, and in some cases have competed in men’s sports, such as hockey. Men’s divisions should more properly be called “open” divisions.
Don’t (most) transmen inject/otherwise take testosterone? That would be doping if a cis man did it. So I do think there’s an argument there (not really any better than the argument against transwomen in women’s sports, in both cases imo hormone levels just need to be monitored and you can have pretty much equal competition).
I also think at the top level it’s not entirely invalid to say you don’t want people with heavily modified bodies competing. Anything that isn’t either the global top level or professional I find it completely ridiculous though, the level is just so wildly variant that any tiny advantage potentially gained from that is negligible anyway.
But also everything I know about the science behind it tells me trans athletes are completely fine (in trans womens case after some minimum time or HRT) because as it turns out hormones kinda determine everything about your body.
The range matters. If you’re taking T prescribed by your doctor to get within the normal range for your gender (regardless of reason, whether you’re trans or if you have T deficiency as a cis man) then you won’t be barred from competition.
Where you cross the line is when you inject T to go above the normal range in order to build muscle and recover faster. That’s what’s considered doping and doctors can’t ethically prescribe that.
I see … Although they are not called that, are they. So now you’re accusing the organizers of basic incompetence or dishonesty. Which is it? … And if either of those is accurate, it raises other questions, too.
now you’re accusing
Putting words in people’s mouths is an extremely immature debate tactic, don’t expect anyone to respect you or take you seriously doing that.
No, you’re putting words into my mouth. I never accused them of basic incompetence.
Women’s sports have rules that say (some variation of) “you must be a woman to join.” Men’s sports don’t have any rules like that. Women play in lower level men’s sports all the time. They just don’t make it to the top level.
They’ll just force them to compete against women, then when a trans man wins, it’ll be sold as “man pretending to be woman steals medals from women”, then extend the whole trans ban.
Sometimes it’s trans men, too. https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/11/10/Changed-Rules-Shut-Trans-Bodybuilder-Out-Competition/
Its weird? Really?
No… come on man, im sure you can figure this one out… youre playing dumb anyway.
Fuck the Olympics. It’s corrupt, it’s full of cheaters and gamblers, and now more bigotry.
Just make the mens competition an “open” competition so that anybody can qualify if they can. A trans-woman competing in the “open” category would be no problem.
Other categories can then stay protected.
In many sports it already is
We’re only a matter of time from a sporting regime where it’s just broadly “open” to a level bordering on chaos, and it’s the only thing that is going to keep people watching.
The “should trans people compete” debate is going to be overshadowed by the “should people with extra hearts and enhanced organs be allowed to compete” debate.
The idea of “preserving fairness” in sports is wild when you think about it. Nothing about sports is “fair” you only succeed by getting an unfair advantage over your opponents, we just like to delude ourselves into thinking that because we set some kind of parameters around this capability to gain an advantage, that it’s “fair.”
Couldn’t there just be an open category in addition to men’s and women’s?
I don’t think men need a protected category for most sports, so having both would just be duplication.
If nothing else, it’s just options for someone to pick from. Why allow one person more choices and not another? Everyone should have the same ability to choose.
We already have that. Men can join the men’s sport, which is usually open, like the NHL, but a restricted group can join the women’s sport. So women already have two choices - join a group where they are statistically unlikely to win, or compete against a group which is a better representation of her peers.
If you want more restricted groups, sure, why not? But the more groups there are, the more most sports will be diluted.
It would be dominated by men.
'cause I know I feel welcome, and not completely othered and invalidated when I’m forced to play on a team that is otherwise entirely men, whom have athletic advantage over me
Who said it would be entirely men? Chess had this format forever and any woman that had the ability to compete in the top level open tournaments was competing in them.
Who said it would be entirely men?
First hand experience
Same chess where men creep on women and female grandmasters report being harassed whenever they try to compete alongside men?
I don’t think women feel welcome when you can accost them and if they say anything they’re just a bitch lying to cause problems.
So instead of addressing the misogyny, let’s sweep it under the rug by not allowing women to compete in the top tournaments? By your logic, shouldn’t we just make a third transgender category to solve the transphobia?
My logic? People are acting like men’s divisions are the open divisions when it’s very much closed to anyone not wanting to endure constant harassment. I don’t think adding facts to the discussion implies any logic aside from the logic in valuing the truth.
Ok, so I misunderstood and you actually agree we should have an open (mixed gender) division? Just adding we also need to work on preventing harassment and discrimination?
Otherwise, you are adding the logic stating that because harassment exists, we shouldn’t have mixed gender tournaments. Which implies we also need separate transgender tournaments, since they are also at risk for harassment in the existing ones.
Welp, time for the Queer Olympics to become a thing again.
A competition of the fastest, strongest, sweatiest gays…
In the greek tradition we will bring back the kynodesme.
So uh… if you’re like me and don’t know what this is: If you do decide to google it, don’t open the wikipedia page on your work laptop…
If it wasn’t for the culture wars, it would be another Oscar Pistorius situation. Not the murder, the prosthetics.
For those who don’t know this guy was a runner whose legs were amputated, and he got replacement prosthetics that made him as good if not better than runners with natural legs. There was some debate if his disability actually gives him an advantage, if it should be allowed at all.
And proceeded to shoot his girlfriend on valentine’s day.
Blindly, through a bathroom door. Reading about that fucked me up.
What about the potential physical advantages of competing in women’s sport after being born strong?
They don’t give a fuck about fair competition so that’s irrelevant. This is just bigotry.
You didn’t answer the question. And it’s a valid question to my mind. See my reply to the above.
Let me ask you a question in turn. How many trans women are placing well in sports? Numbers, percentages, whatever you’ve got. How many cis women have had their rightful first place stolen by someone who’s just naturally better by merit of how they were born?
In answer to your question, transition does a lot, more than you would expect. It’s pretty statistically clear that the residual effects of going through the wrong puberty haven’t caused a physical ability imbalance that renders competition unfair. We haven’t seen any such thing play out, unless you consider any trans woman placing ever as inherently unfair and stealing results from cis women.
I want to know where this outrage was for Michael Phelps. We didn’t see legislation passed to deperson Andre the Giant. There are huge biological differences between people, and some people have an advantage in sport by merit of how their body works. There’s never outrage against gifted men.
Women have to suffer the brunt of this line of attack. Many cis women, for some reason especially women of color, get attacked as men if they have elevated testosterone, chromosomal abnormalities, or many other random biological quirks that someone doesn’t think is fair. Imane Khalif, a cis woman, gets attacked for not being a woman. Lin Yu Ting gets attacked for not being a woman. Caster Semenya gets attacked for not being a woman.
This trans panic in sports is not about fairness. Nobody making these decisions are doing so to create a balanced competition. This is sexism and transphobia being used to police women to ensure they’re feminine enough to appear on the world stage.
Imane Khelif, Lin Yu Ting, and Caster Semenya are all biologically male (not trans, DSD males incorrectly assigned female at birth). No cis women won a medal in the 2016 Rio 800m, all of the medal winners were DSD male. That would likely continue to be the case except they are no longer eligible for the women’s category.
Michael Phelps’ records have already been surpassed. DSD males competing in women’s sports set records that cis woman will never surpass. It is not surprising that the vast majority of people find this unfair. The IOC is doing the right thing.
So, none of the people mentioned are trans women? Why exactly are you making these comments?
I focused on those athletes because they’re the motivating factors behind this decision. DSD males and trans women both have the innate advantage of male puberty, which is why the IOC is making this move. To focus specifically on trans women, here’s one example out of many on why we have separate competitions for men and women (not a sympathetic article, but factual):
In 2016, a Portuguese-American athlete named Hannah Caldas participated in the female category of the “Monstar Games,” a large fitness competition held in Rio de Janeiro. The Games included a weightlifting challenge run by Brazil’s Fortify Equipamentos sporting-goods retail chain, whereby contestants were scored on how many times they could lift heavy balls over their heads in the space of a minute.
An event official asked Caldas to choose between one of two balls—weighing thirty and seventy pounds, respectively.
“How about the 120?” Caldas replied, pointing to a third, much larger ball.
According to Caldas’s subsequent recollection, the official explained that this wasn’t a realistic option for contestants registered in the female category, since “no girls had been able to pick it up.”
“Challenge accepted!” Caldas later wrote on Instagram. While a fellow athlete named Joyce Rodrigues filmed, Caldas proceeded to heave the 120-pound weight into the air no fewer than sixteen times.
The idea that biological males don’t have an athletic advantage over females is plainly, obviously wrong
USMS records indicate that it was 23 January 2009 when a new swimming sensation identified as “Hannah Caldas” suddenly appeared on the women’s USMS racing scene. Despite being a complete unknown, Caldas immediately began dominating the competition in the 30–34-year-old age group—including winning five out of six events at Caldas’s inaugural tournament in Charlotte, NC. The performances were so astounding that Caldas reportedly almost hit a benchmark time for Portugal’s women’s Olympic swimming team (missing the cut by a mere 0.3 seconds).
This would be a shockingly impressive athletic run for anyone—let alone a (nominal) rookie such as Caldas, who was able to blast past former NCAA swimming stars with ease despite having no collegiate training as a female athlete; and who was, by this point in life, a full decade past the prime age for Olympic-calibre swimmers.
That’s why the argument that trans women are only 0.X% of competitors doesn’t hold any water. They can still dominate a sport and deny medals to any cis women competing. This is now becoming an issue at the Olympic level which is why the IOC is addressing it, but people have tracked many more cases at sites like https://hecheated.org/. Whether or not you like the people behind that or similar sites, it’s more about the facts.
I question that as well. The strength advantage seems to be a factor of how early one transitions. If we figure that in, now we have another controversy, another fat can of worms.
They’re probably thinking along these lines and just saying, “Fuck it, total ban, zero tolerance.”
You may have misunderstood the point of my rhetorical question. I will elaborate.
What about people who are born with XX chromosomes, and all the associated lady bits, who happen to be especially strong? Or tall? Or flexible? Or any other kind of physical difference that would give them an advantage in their chosen sport?
Wouldn’t those people have exactly the same kind of “unfair advantage”?
“Oh, wait, that’s not what we mean,” the Olympics organizers might say. “We are only concerned with one kind of innate physical difference, and not any others.”
Who fucking cares about this irrelevant pissing contest anymore. It’s all politics and doping scandals, what does the undercarriage have to do with ANY of that? Why would anyone even aspire to even compete in this in today’s world.
Public schooled?
Do trans women keep placing number 1 during competition?
No, but there was that fuss last year at the Olympics because some of the boxers looked manly. They weren’t even trans, incidentally, not that that little fact ever made the headlines or the Facebook groups.
Well well well, so much for being inclusive. Fucking pricks
boycott the olympics then
Another reason to
