Should Transgender Athletes Be Allowed to Compete in Women's Sports?

Should Transgender Athletes Be Allowed to Compete in Women's Sports?
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc71306335 \h 1Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc71306336 \h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc71306337 \h 2Biological Aspects of Sports PAGEREF _Toc71306338 \h 2Unfair Competitive Advantage and Testorene Suppression PAGEREF _Toc71306339 \h 3Issue of Inclusivity and Diversity PAGEREF _Toc71306340 \h 4Discussion and conclusion PAGEREF _Toc71306341 \h 5References PAGEREF _Toc71306342 \h 6
Introduction
Sports are influenced mainly by an overarching range of physiological factors, including metabolic factors, cardiorespiratory capacity, muscle power, and anthropometric characteristics. All these factors differ between biologically males and females, raising whether or not transgender women should participate in competitive sports with other women. The issue of unequal competitive advantage has continued to take shape in the past decade, with many women citing transgender women's participation in sports as inappropriate. According to Southern Utah University sprinter Linnea Saltz, allowing transgender women to participate equally with other women is not only wrong but against women's rights. She says that “allowing transgender to participate takes away women opportunities which women have had to fight for them for many years” (Romboy, 2021). Linnea Saltza and other opponents and proponents of transgender women's participation in competitive sports contribute to the more extensive debate existing today. Overall, sports are one of the plays where endurance, might, and strength matter, and as a result, there is a massive need to segregate sports into male and female categories and weight and age categories. For many years, sports organizers have opted to promote fairness in sports by ensuring women and men participate in respective categories. For many years, sports segregation, which has been the norm, is now under scrutiny for its failure to include transgender persons transitioning from their biological sex to new and socially constructed sexual orientations. Many transgender women who transition from their former biological sexes to new sexes expect to participate in their unknown male or female categories, triggering a recent debate on fairness and safety in as much as women's competition is concerned. Over the past decade, amendments have been made, primarily through the International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy to allow transgender women to participate in women’s competitive sport. According to the IOC policy statement, “it is necessary to accord all transgender athletes the opportunity to participate in all sporting activities.” Also, IOC policies established initially states that “overriding sporting objectives is a major factor in as far as fair competition is concerned.” However, IOC justifies its stand by arguing that, while transgender persons can participate in sports somewhat, “participation restrictions are important to the extent deemed fair and proportionate in attainment of set objectives” (Sailors, 2020). IOC’s proposed restrictions include the demand that transgender women must maintain a testorene level below 10nmol/L at least 12 months before competitive sports. IOC believes that restore assessment is the only option to do away with the biological advantage held by transgender females over other women. Testorene level and many other unequal benefits raise the question of whether transgender athletes should or should not be allowed to compete in Women's competitive sports.
Literature Review
Introduction
In the past few years, many research studies have explored the topic of transgender athletes and their perceived impact on the overall competitiveness and fairness of the game. Many researchers have examined how testorene suppression changes transgender people's biological components, performance, and overall physiology. In this literature review, the sole purpose is to explore whether testorene suppression among transgender athletes neutralizes their biological advantages and determine whether their inclusion in sports decreases the competitiveness and fairness of sports. The literature review weights these secondary findings and concludes whether transgender women should be allowed in women’s competitive sports.
Biological Aspects of Sports
According to Hilton & Lundberg (2020), differences in sex development are a crucial factor in competitive sports. Male advantage stands superior in many aspects of sports. Their research shows that out of 85,000 Australian children aged 9-17years, males possessed a higher level of endurance and strength in major sporting events. Males aged ten years and above completed more pushes and ran longer distances compared to their female counterparts. The male advantage was also reported among the US and Greek children as they could run more distance and completed over 20% more shuttle runs than girls. Regarding aerobic capacity, males had a higher advantage than girls (Schultz, 2019). Accordingly, testorene levels increased about 20 times more among boys than girls in puberty, giving boys a much more advantage as they transition to adolescence and eventually puberty. High testosterone level in males induces greater body changes such as strength, endurance, muscle expansion, and haemoglobin level, giving them a much more advanced physical endurance. The physical developmental advantage, especially with reference to testorene levels in puberty, gives men an advanced athletic advantage compared to females.
According to Handelman, Hirschberg, & Bermon (2018), males have a physical advantage with a much higher ability to exert a higher muscular force which increases their power to weight ratios and the upper to lower limb strengths. This remains a crucial advantage to them in sports as their performance capacity is much more developed. With mass, weight, and physical appearance directly proportional to heart volume and respiratory functions, men have much more advantage in sports. Of course, there are key sporting areas where men do not possess a performance advantage, but this often has little to do with physicality and endurance and more about culture and several other non-physical aspects. Schultz (2019) further notes that sports performances depend majorly on the speed, magnitude, and degree of the force application. Weightlifting, for example, has substantial physical demands and best suited to people with high physical endurance. In most sporting activities, the sporting gap is much more evident between men and women. For example, men's endurance and capabilities in Olympic javelin throwing are much more advanced than women. Through all these performance gaps between males and females, it is evident that males have disproportionally high endurance and strength, and therefore, segregation in sports is justifiable.
Unfair Competitive Advantage and Testorene Suppression
According to Henne (2014), concerns about an unfair competitive advantage are among the critical reasons for the increased resistance to the participation of transgender athletes in sports. Arguably, men have significant biological advantages that make them more enduring and physically equipped in the sporting arena. Their advantage in sports is much more advanced than women, which raises the debate on what transgender women can do compared to other non-transgender athletes. Jones, Arcelus, Bouman, & Haycraft (2017) argued that transgender women are more like men and allowing them to take part in women's competitions takes away the competitive advantage of women in sporting competitions. The proponents of exclusion of transgender women in sports cite three significant assumptions: (1) transgender women are not real women and not deserving of an equal opportunity like normal women; (2) being born with a male body gives a transgender woman an advantage when competing with non-transgender women; and (3) allowing transgender women to participate reduces the competitiveness of sports as men might opt to participate in the competition with athlete women (Schultz, 2019). According to Pike (2020), men have the ultimate advantage over women, but according to scientific evidence, transgender women undergo a scientifically proven process that reduces their testorene capacities that equals those of women counterparts. Sailors (2020) argues that with IOC expecting a minimum of ten nmol/L for 12 months before competitive sporting among transgender women, it has become possible to reduce the endurance and physical advantage held by transgender women and subsequently make the sports fair.
Symons & Storr (2020) notes that while evidence proves that testorene suppression works among transgender women, there is still no ideal biological framework that can help alter transgender woman’s skeleton measurement such as hip-width and chest width, meaning that the skeleton parameters remain unaltered despite testorene reduction, giving transgender women an unfair advantage. This advantage is much more superior in sporting events where limb length, height, and high endurance and physicality are required, such as volleyball and basketball. According to Schultz (2011), while transgender women undergo testosterone suppression, the bone geometry remains unaltered, giving them more cover against sporting incidences such as knee injury and other sports disadvantages. More so, Hilton & Lundberg (2020), in their research on muscle strength between transgender males and females, discovered that while transgender women reported effects three years after consistent testorene suppression and estrogen supplementation, their thigh and hand muscle sizes did not undergo significant changes. Transgender males reported substantial differences...