Olympic Medalist Emily Seebohm Says Transgender Women Have Unfair Advantages; Should Not Race Against Biological Females

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Olympic Medalist Emily Seebohm Says Transgender Women Have Unfair Advantages; Should Not Race Against Biological Females

A few days after Emma McKeon and Tracy Stockwell (nee Caulkins) addressed the issue of transgender participation in women’s sports, another major name in the sport has weighed in with her opinion. Longtime backstroke star Emily Seebohm, a seven-time Olympic medalist, appeared on the Nine Network’s Today show and highlighted the advantages possessed by transgender women over biological women.

“Of course, biological males are always going to be faster and stronger than I will ever be in my life,” she said.

The issue of transgender athletes in sports became a topic in the swimming world last December when Lia Thomas, from the University of Pennsylvania, began competing for the women’s team at the college. Thomas was previously a three-year member of Penn’s men’s team before transitioning from male to female. She was eligible to race for the women’s team as she met guidelines instituted by the NCAA, rules that were based on outdated science. Thomas went on to win the NCAA title in the 500-yard freestyle and was a finalist in the 100 and 200 freestyles.

The argument against transgender women competing against biological women hinges on the effects of male puberty and the production of years of testosterone, along with advantages such as greater lung capacity, hand and feet size and built-up strength.

At last summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Seebohm was the bronze medalist in the 200 backstroke and added a gold medal for her efforts in the preliminaries of the 400 medley relay. She used the results of Tokyo to make a point about transgender participation.

“I want to compete on that same level playing field, I want to know I’m in that same field where everyone has that same ability of strength, has that same ability of speed, has that same ability of power,” Seebohm said. “I need to make sure that’s a priority because we want that level playing field, we want to be able to swim and the races be neck and neck because we are even, we don’t want people winning by 10, eight seconds.

“If I was swimming in a male event I wouldn’t even place. I wouldn’t have got a medal in Tokyo, and a male who came eighth in Tokyo in the same event as me would have won the event by about five or six seconds, so there’s the difference we’re talking about.”

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Kim

2 years ago

Bravo, finally some no nonsense talk from a swimmer – beside NCAA swimmer Reka György 🙂

Bobbie

2 years ago

Reply to Kim

Agreed ! Finally some common sense comparisons ! Facts should always outweigh identity issues of a few to provide an eqitable playing field for female athletes.