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In all the hoo-hah about transgender individuals playing sports in their chosen gender the focus has only been on male-to-female. Nobody has ever mentioned female-to-male. There is evidently no perception of a problem if a born female athlete (for instance) plays American football or runs in male races.
Here is a very brief list of sports where size and strength make no difference. Please feel free to add any sport you like to this very brief list. Or challenge this list.
* Archery
*Pistol/Rifle/Skeet Shooting
*Darts
*Lawn Bowls
*Ten-Pin Bowling
*Surfing
*Skate-Boarding
*Croquet
*Ice Skating (excepting pairs)
*Billiards/Snooker
Why would you make MtF competitors illegal in any of these, other than through sheer prejudice?
Comments
Ten pin bowling
There is a perception among Ten Pin bowlers (I used to be one) that if you are stronger and can throw the ball down the alley with great speed, that you will knock down more pins; that using a heavier ball will knock down more pins. This to spite the fact that bowling coaches stress accuracy over speed of the ball.
As a youth, I had that demonstrated graphically. During practice with my team, some of the guys derided me about not using enough power and not approaching the line forcefully enough. So I tried to hurry my approach to enhance speed of my ball. The result was that I ended up nearly tripping and falling over the foul line. My ball left my hand with nearly no impetus at all. It meandered (I mean that literately as it seemed to choose a mild serpentine path) down the alley taking a good 30 to 40 seconds to reach the pins. It was going so slow that I expected it to simply bump against the pins and stop. However, it found the sweet spot, hitting dead on the pocket and I got a strike. The coach said flatly, "Accuracy is more important than speed."
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
where male and female compete in the Olympics
on an equal footing is in the Equestrian events. i.e. Show Jumping, 3-Day and Dressage.
Samantha
the argument in the case of archery and skating.
Some would argue that in skating ( both figure and speed) that the development of the leg muscles would place "biological girls" at a disadvantage in terms of speed ( for speedskating) and jumping ability (for figure skating). In archery, some might argue that a biological male might have different strength in the pull resistance, and would be able to pull a heavier bow better. I don't think that would do anything for accuracy, but some might argue the strength advantage.
winter sport
But what about curling? And perhaps Biathlon?
In cycling there are test events where it's a mixed team, how would that pan out? And what about artistic cycling?
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Curling is my 3rd favorite winter sport
After perming and blow-drying.
~hugs, Veronica
And remember...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
I'll add motorsport to that
I'll add motorsport to that list. The strength needed to drive an F1 car can be extreme thanks to the G-Forces on most tracks, but there's no reason a genetic woman (or indeed, a trans woman) couldn't drive the car. And indeed, many women are actively trying to break into the sport. As well as another talented trans girl who's currently ranked third in the British Endurance racing championship with her co-drivers.
Debs xxxx
Thanks For The Feedback
I had totally forgotten the equestrian competitions, but perhaps the "lawmakers" should consider whether gelded stallions should be allowed to compete with genetic mares. It is notable in professional flat racing that mares are often the most successful. A horse named Winx was the most successful mare in recent history in Australia, winning 30 races in a row. Presumably she competed against other mares, geldings and entires during her career. How do you deal with perceived advantage in horse racing? You handicap a horse by adding more weight to it every time it wins.
In a way, similar constraints operate in sports like boxing, where you divide competitors by weight so that a man like Muhammad Ali does not box against Manny Paquiao.
I concede the point on speed-skating, but figure-skating is judged on technique, balance and grace, not how high you can jump.
In archery, as I understand it, there are three competitions for different classes of bows (which are also individually tailored to the user's power and physique). These are for different target distances, 50, 70 and 90 metres and it is accuracy that is the measure for scoring, so a big strong male has no advantage over a small woman, whether she be cis or trans.
I had not even considered the winter sports like curling. Please forgive me, Laika. I hope your hair looks adorable.
I guess my point is that there are tools available in many sports to even up the field, that is if you are interested in fairness and not ideology...and there are sports where natural-born women will probably always excel in their field like gymnastics, Simone Biles.
natrual division
I just want to suggest that we replace the "natural division" of men's leagues and women's leagues and instead use body mass or shoe size or some other more relevant division for sports leagues.
The idea that men and women have to compete in different leagues is at least in part sustained by the average body mass biological men have. On average bio-men are heavier than bio-women. But the extremes are nearly identical. There might well be more biological men in the largest mass leagues but chances are there will be some women there. The same is true in the other direction. There may well be more bio-women in the lighter leagues but there will also be some bio-men there.
Let take sex, gender, identity, orientation, preference, polarity, and whatever other irrelevant distinction out of sports league divisions and just focus on the ones that mater to performance of the sport.
Crescenda
aka
Your friend
Crash