Interesting points, Justin, but the rules might be difficult to frame. Olympic swimmer, Sharron Davies has argued that transgender athletes who were born male have a physical advantage over cisgendered women. “Michael Phelps has size 15 feet; your average female swimmer has size six,” she said. “If someone is a good swimmer and they decide they want to transition to being a female, none of our girls would stand a chance.” And while in his teens, New Zealander Gavin Hubbard, set national records in junior weightlifting competitions. He transitioned to female in 2012 and underwent hormone therapy and took the name Laurel Hubbard. Hubbard won two gold medals and a silver medal in the 2019 Pacific Games. Hubbard is 6-foot-1 and weighs 287 pounds. Men who have gone through puberty before transitioning have an unfair physical advantage over women who were born women and remained women. In contact sports like boxing and rugby, the physical advantage could prove lethal. The male skull is designed to take more impact but nonetheless head injuries in male American footballers and in rugby players worldwide have become a major cause of concern. In 2020, World Rugby’s transgender working group produced a 38-page draft document in which it was calculated that increased injury risk for typical players with female characteristics when tackled by a typical player with male characteristics was between 20% and 30%.
Alastair Banton ● 1629d