Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers after winning a race during a meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at the University of Pennsylvania on Jan. 8, 2022. Hunter Martin / Getty Images
Transgender women in women's sport – a scientific/professional opinion:
First, just to make it clear – I do not have the medical or physiological details that can make it possible for me to determine if this is the case for this athlete. But the principle is important, and therefore this opinion is not specific to this case.
The decision to allow transgender woman to compete against women does not make any sense from a physiological point of view. The fact is that we cannot (yet…) change our chromosome, and from a pure biological point of view, females will always remain females and males will always remain males. It should be emphasized that this opinion has nothing to do with everyone's right to socially define his/her gender and to live his/her life the way he or she chooses to. Human rights surely support that.
Gender equality is indeed crucial until inherent clear inequality exists, such as in sport. Controlling testosterone levels in transgender women as a pre condition to participate in women's sport is not enough since many physiological, anatomical and biomechanical variables would not change to the level of complete equality. On average, from an inherent potential point of view men will always have a physiological advantage, especially when strength and power are involved.
This issue must be reconsidered, and other solutions should be found in order to maintain a "fair game".
Prof. Yuval Heled