But their victories, far from being hailed as milestones, have sparked a controversy that, while difficult to admit, is not without reason. At the very least, it has sparked an inevitable and necessary debate.
Aside from prejudice and transphobia, Thomas’s coronation at National Collegiate Athlete Association (NCAA) competitions presents an ethical dilemma no matter how you look at it, either because the biological champion has a clear advantage over his rivals or because the fact itself tends to discriminate against leading someone who does, after all, she didn’t make the switch to win medals, but for deeper and more intimate reasons.
That’s why it hurts that so many people are starting to condemn the case with little regard for Lia’s dignity and her gender rights. Yet as much as one would like to empathize with them, the feeling remains that their victories, while legal, are not entirely accurate. Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, said it emphatically: “Gender cannot trump biology.”
Coe, Olympic gold medalist in Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, warned that failing to properly handle the matter would jeopardize the integrity of women’s sport in the future. It may sound exaggerated, but this subject undoubtedly requires rigorous, respectful and open-minded analysis in order to avoid situations from which both the swimmer in question and her competitors suffer.
The problem is when the debate moves beyond sports and characters like Florida Gov. conservative Ron DeSantis use the Thomas case as a spearhead to attack the human rights of a community that has long been violated. The politician accused the NCAA of attacking women’s sports. What stupidity.
The matter is complex, and the solution to it will inevitably be too. For some it is necessary to create a special category for trans athletes in order not to discriminate against them but to guarantee competitions on equal terms and to avoid undesirable developments such as mandatory hormone treatments to lower testosterone levels.
That’s the same or even more humiliating. If not, remember the case of South African athlete Caster Semenya.
Because a process can be right. But that doesn’t make it fair.
jdg/cmv
(Taken from the supplement Orbe Deportivo).