{"id":494849,"date":"2022-01-03T13:03:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T20:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=494849"},"modified":"2022-01-03T19:38:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T02:38:32","slug":"guest-editorial-ncaa-transgender-participation-policy-is-woefully-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/guest-editorial-ncaa-transgender-participation-policy-is-woefully-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Editorial: NCAA Transgender Participation Policy Is Woefully Behind; Needs Immediate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Guest Editorial: NCAA Transgender Participation Policy Is Woefully Behind; Requires Immediate Amendment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Swimming World is publishing the following letter submitted by Sharon Weiss, a former Division I swimmer at the University of Arizona.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While the NCAA is \u201ca member-led organization dedicated to the well-being and lifelong success of college athletes,\u201d its silence regarding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/lia-thomas-transgender-swimmer-from-penn-swims-fastest-times-in-nation-controversy-brewing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UPenn swimmer<\/a> <strong>Lia Thomas<\/strong> is not only deafening, but appears to be eroding its stated pledge. By now, we have seen the NCAA\u2019s transgender policy, which states: \u201cA trans female treated with testosterone suppression medication may continue to compete on a men&#8217;s team but may not compete on a women&#8217;s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one year of testosterone suppression treatment.\u201d But what is the basis for this ruling?<\/p>\n<p>On April 26, 2021, <strong>LaGwyn Durden<\/strong> (Director, NCAA Sport Science Institute) said: \u201cThe NCAA consistently assesses its current transgender policies.\u201d Yet, the NCAA Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes Handbook was published in August, 2011, over 10 years ago. Durden went on to acknowledge that \u201cone of the challenges is that the science\/medical community hasn\u2019t really reached a consensus on testosterone threshold; we don\u2019t have a definitive answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A review of the inclusion handbook clearly demonstrates that we are no better prepared for Lia Thomas\u2019 emergence in women\u2019s swimming during the 2021-22 season than we were over 10 years ago. The 32-page document begins with the NCAA\u2019s commitment to \u201cdiversity, inclusion and gender equity among its student-athletes, coaches and administrators.\u201d Most troubling, however, is the section regarding concerns about competitive equity specific to the participation of transgender women who transition after puberty, like swimmer Lia Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>In a single sentence, concerns about sex-linked advantages are dismissed when the handbook asserts that \u201ctransgender women display a great deal of physical variation, just as there is a great deal of natural variation in physical size and ability among non-transgender women and men.\u201d Just like that, the physical sex-linked differences that emerge from the onset of male puberty and have notable implications for athletic performance and safety, the very rationale for sex-segregated sports, upheld by Congress with Title IX, are disregarded. Sex-linked differences are not \u201cstereotypes\u201d as the handbook suggests; on the contrary, sex-linked differences between males and females are innumerable and well documented. For <strong>Dr. Nick Gorton<\/strong> to suggest (in the handbook) that \u201ctransgender student-athletes fall within the spectrum of physical traits found in athletes of their transitioned gender, allowing them to compete fairly and equitably\u201d shows little regard for the convincing evidence that trans women (according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/womenssportspolicy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Women\u2019s Sports Policy Working Group<\/a>) maintain legacy advantages even after one year of hormone treatment.<\/p>\n<p>While the importance of inclusion in modern society cannot be overstated, when it comes to elite sports, the truth is, we still have a lot to learn about sex reassignment and sports performance. Any policy that suggests that post-puberty, sex-linked differences between males and females can be erased with a single year of hormone replacement therapy does the exact opposite of what Durden claimed when she said that the NCAA consistently assesses its transgender policy. Not only is the basis for the policy questionable at best, the current policy ignores the complex nature of the topic; the growing body of research on legacy advantages; and the current plight of women\u2019s sports, where Title IX deficiencies throughout the country already grossly limit equal athletic and academic opportunities for women, as noted by the Women\u2019s Sports Policy Working Group.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m personally delighted to see Lia Thomas living as her authentic self. It\u2019s about time that the social stigmas attached to gender identity and sexual orientation be abandoned for a more inclusive and accepting society. I encourage her to continue her pursuit of excellence in swimming as she raises awareness for transgender issues and hopefully makes a strong contribution to the evolving science. By the same token, I think we can all agree that if swimming competition was about participating in the category we feel the most \u201ccomfortable,\u201d the 8-year-olds would be in real trouble. Similarly, in a sport like swimming, where painstaking effort is given to every minute detail, from two-hand turns to the 15-meter mark, it behooves us all, for the preservation of fair competition, to have policies that don\u2019t yield unfair advantage like the \u201ccurrent\u201d NCAA policy does.<\/p>\n<p>In sport, we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate principles of fairness, equity, inclusivity, mutual respect, acceptance, sportsmanship, discipline, and work ethic. With these values in mind, now is the time for Lia Thomas, UPenn, and the NCAA to step up, to acknowledge her advantage, and to finish the season exhibition only. Further, the NCAA policy needs immediate amendment. Until we have a better understanding of the effects of sex reassignment on elite sports performance, the observed 8-12% (and in some instances greater) difference between males and females in sport remains unchanged, just as Lia Thomas is in no way 8-12% slower than her former male self. Our inclusion policies regarding trans female athletes need to balance our value for inclusion with our value for fair competition.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon M Weiss, PhD<br \/>\nUniversity of Arizona Swimming (1980-84)<br \/>\nHead Coach, Lakeridge Swim Team<\/p>\n<p><em>All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest Editorial: NCAA Transgender Participation Policy Is Woefully Behind; Requires Immediate Amendment Swimming World is publishing the following letter submitted by Sharon Weiss, a former Division I swimmer at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67367,"featured_media":494853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122077,6],"tags":[129951,251,130091,51820,130092],"class_list":["post-494849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-americas","category-college","tag-lia-thomas","tag-ncaa","tag-sharon-weiss","tag-transgender","tag-upenn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Guest Editorial: NCAA Transgender Participation Policy Is Woefully Behind<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A guest editorial from a former D-I swimmer notes the NCAA policy regarding transgender participation is outdated amid the Lia Thomas saga.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/guest-editorial-ncaa-transgender-participation-policy-is-woefully-behind\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guest Editorial: NCAA Transgender Participation Policy Is Woefully Behind; 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