Date: 6/15/2022
I gave little thought to gender and sport until Longmeadow High School’s Girls Field Hockey team advanced to the 2019 Division I State Championship. This elite team, led by legendary coach Ann Simons, had amassed a dominant 18-2-2 record. Their opponent Somerset Berkley Regional High School, while also excellent, had a trump card: two male players. These two boys played a dominant role in Somerset Berkley’s 4-1 victory over Longmeadow. In an interview after the game, Coach Simons said, “We are the best girls team in the state, they are the best mixed-gender team in the state.” Simons added, “this is not the first time that it’s happened, and it’s not going to be the last time unless something is changed.”
As a female, two-sport varsity athlete who has faced opposing volleyball teams with male players, the value of inclusion versus fairness in sport is an issue that has weighed on me. The topic burst onto the worldwide stage earlier this year when University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who was born male but identifies as female, won the national NCAA title for women in the 500-yard freestyle competition.
Neither Somerset Berkeley, nor Thomas, broke any rules. Boys interested in playing field hockey are allowed to play on girls’ teams because there are no male field hockey teams in Massachusetts. In Thomas’s case, the NCAA allows transgender women to compete if they undergo testosterone-suppressing hormone treatment. Yet studies show that testosterone suppression does not fully overcome the inherent advantage female transgender athletes gain from being biologically male.
Many, including Thomas’s own teammates, cited the unfair playing field that this creates. A letter from sixteen of Thomas’ teammates stated, “Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female.” Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights, said in an interview, “I played against taller women, I played against stronger women, and I beat them all. But if I faced the male equivalent of Lia in tennis, that’s biology. I would have had no shot. And I would have been livid.”
It is important to affirm transgender athletes’ identities, but it is also meritorious to ensure fair competition for women. It seems clear that trying to manipulate nature in attempts to artificially create a level playing field is doomed to fail. I do not believe any amount of talent or training can make me and my fellow cisgender female athletes able to overcome the innate advantage a biologically male athlete possesses.
We can respect individuals’ rights to express their identity in almost every aspect of daily life, but in the arena of sports we should maintain fairness and the integrity of competition. Any decision like this comes at a cost, such as falling short of attaining complete inclusion in sports; but on balance, failing to preserve fairness for cisgender female athletes would be the greater sacrifice.
Audrey Lam
Longmeadow
