Cheater says what now?
The US swimmer Lia Thomas, who rose to global prominence by becoming the first transgender athlete to win a NCAA college title, is taking legal action in a bid to compete again in elite female sport – including the Olympics.
Or, to put it more clearly and accurately, the male US swimmer William “Lia” Thomas, who rose to global prominence by pretending to be a woman and thus winning women’s races, is taking legal action in hopes of cheating women that way again.
Thomas has always denied transitioning to get ahead. “The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas said in 2022. “People will say: ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”
Well he would say that, wouldn’t he. He’s not going to say “Yes, I pretended to be a woman so that I could win.” But that’s what he did all the same.
And guess what, if he really had “transitioned” to be happy and true to himself then he never would have done the cheating part. Why? Because that wasn’t the goal so why do it? Why invite all the grief? Why not just settle down in blissful womanyhood while not making a whole lot of women detest him?
I’m skeptical that any of the athletes who actually begin biological transition — hormone therapy and/or surgery — are really doing it for the purpose of winning in the women’s division. Even allowing for the fact that athletes have done, and continue to do, some strange things to their bodies in the pursuit of victory, that seems a little extreme. (Different story if a sport simply allows “self-ID” — that’s just an invitation for abuse.) That’s not to say that I don’t think people like Thomas very much enjoy the victories and medals and opportunities and acclaim for being brave and stunning, etc., just that I don’t think that’s the original motivating factor.
But it’s irrelevant to the question of whether sporting organizations should allow it. Even if Thomas transitioned purely out of a sincere desire to live as a woman, and with no thought for the competitive advantages that competing in the women’s division would bring, that doesn’t mean she should be allowed to do it.
As you note in your last paragraph, someone can just transition and not compete in the women’s division — they can even still do the sport they love, just without an unfair advantage.
Decades ago when the common form of sports doping was crude old steroids, an anonymous survey asked elite athletes if they would take a drug that ensured they would win gold, but would result in their death within five years. A surprisingly high number said yes. That doesn’t mean that some of the current crop of athletes are not transitioning for other reasons, but it’s a good bet some are doing it for the wins and for many the wins are just an added bonus.
A Facebook acquaintance pointed out that that article does not refer to Thomas as “she.” The writer, Sean Ingle, quotes Thomas referring to himself as “she,” but carefully avoids using any second person pronoun.
Himself. Ingle carefully avoids using
secondthird person pronouns himself. Sorry.Third-person, I think you meant.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is a specific organization, named exactly that, so should probably have been capitalized in the article. They have acknowledged registration of the case, which by sheer coincidence is the 10,000th case registered by the organization since its creation in 1984.
You mean third person pronouns?
[re-reads it] Why yes, so he does. It shows up rather nicely in this paragraph:
“the 25-year-old…the case”
The most obvious one though is
AWKward!
Thanks for pointing it out!
It’s quite obvious that if he were truly a woman inside, that woman would understand the problem with him being in the women’s competition and in the locker room.
Yes, I meant third-person. Sorry!
Forty lashes with a wet noodle!