USA Swimming Introducing New, Stricter Policies on ‘Elite’ Transgender Athletes
“A panel of three independent medical experts will be charged with reviewing applicants and implementing the policy.”
USA Swimming is the biggest governing organization for competitive swimming in the country and is now introducing new policies regarding transgender athletes.
This was triggered by the national spotlight on UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, and as you can probably imagine, some people on the left are not happy about it.
Jo Yurcaba reports at NBC News:
USA Swimming announces new policy for elite transgender athletes
The national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States released a new policy Tuesday for transgender female athletes, and it faced swift criticism from some advocates.
USA Swimming, which has more than 400,000 members who compete on club teams all the way up to the Olympic team, released the Athlete Inclusion, Competitive Equity and Eligibility Policy, which is effective immediately.
It lays out two requirements for trans women who are members of USA Swimming: The concentration of testosterone in their blood must be less than 5 nanomoles per liter continuously for at least 36 months before they apply to compete, and they must provide evidence that going through puberty as their sex assigned at birth “does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete’s cisgender female competitors.”
A panel of three independent medical experts will be charged with reviewing applicants and implementing the policy.
In a news release Tuesday, USA Swimming cited statistical data comparing male and female cisgender athletes, who identify with their sex assigned at birth, that shows that the top-ranked woman in 2021, on average, would be ranked much lower in male events across short and long swimming distances.
Some critics believe this is all about Lia Thomas:
USA Swimming: How long has Lia Thomas been on HRT?
32 months
USA Swimming: How long until Lia Thomas graduates?
4 months
USA Swimming: Let’s make the new rule 36 months, no one will suspect a thing.
Should we put out documentation to justify this policy?
USA Swimming: No
— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) February 2, 2022
The new USA Swimming policy is terrible.
– It requires 3 years of T suppression, dqing Lia Thomas (2.5 years)
– It is not evidence based.
– Even if guidelines are met, a "panel of experts" can veto "if development as a man gives too much advantage"
– It clearly targets Lia. https://t.co/Teh9SI3LVO
— Erin, Trail Mom (@ErinInTheMorn) February 2, 2022
The left-wing organization Media Matters for America is calling this a result of a “right-wing media hate campaign” because that’s how they see every problem in the world:
USA Swimming capitulates to a right-wing media hate campaign and prematurely ends trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ season
After months of obsessive coverage in right-wing media, USA Swimming released new rules governing the inclusion of trans athletes which appear to bar University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas from finishing her season.
Following intense pressure from right-wing media, the swimming association will now require three years of testosterone suppression, as well as approval from three “independent medical experts,” before allowing trans women to compete in the female category. Thomas had previously exceeded the rules set by the NCAA, suppressing her testosterone levels for over two years. According to a February 1 press release, the new rules are “effective immediately.”
In changing these goal posts, USA Swimming is capitulating to a right-wing hate campaign that repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered Thomas, a 22-year-old trans woman, and relentlessly framed her participation as a dire threat to women’s sports.
Biological males competing in women’s sports, and shattering records along the way, is a dire threat to women’s sports.
At some point, women athletes will simply throw up their hands and ask, why bother?
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Comments
How about the presenting your birth certificate like Gov. Noem’s new proposal would require?
That’s a slippery slope. Next you will want I’d to vote.
True. That would be racist. Where would blacks get birth certificates? They’re having a hard enough time getting picture IDs.
But of course having to provide a photo of a picture ID and a selfie for facial recognition with a “trusted” third party company in order to register with the IRS online in order to view and obtain tax records isn’t racist.
Because Democrats apparently view all black males as career criminals and black women as welfare queens and they all know those people don’t pay taxes.
Not like HIspanics, which rich leftists think of as domestics and gardeners. They know exactly how much they pay those people people to do the jobs Americans won’t do. Like scrub their toilets and pick up after their dogs.
My kid used to have a Cabbage Patch Kid. They all came with birth certificates. So presumably, other kids found in cabbage patches should be able to get them, too.
That’s a worthless proposal. Why, you ask. Because in some states – like Noem’s state – people can file to have their birth certificates amended to reflect their ‘new’ gender and unfortunately, there’s nothing on the birth certificate to that indicates that it has been amended. IOW, the birth certificate will show that the person was ‘born’ whatever gender they’ve selected. It’s insane, I know. But, that’s how it works and it underscores that Noem’s fix wasn’t a fix at all. Instead, it was the fix that Noem’s handlers in big business wrote for her.
I would start with “What is in your pants?”
My understanding is this individual still has male genitalia.
My ignorant self would say that this person is considering becoming a trans person, but is still just a male in a dress.
After graduation, having his college paid via athletic scholarship a simple change of thought and poof.
HE is not even a fucking transgender. He’s a cross dresser. HE STILL HAS A FUCKING DICK, and apparently he enjoys changing in front of the actual women on the team.
This is nothing more than a deviant getting a thrill from forcing women to submit to his insanity.
At this point he may be glad he did not have surgery.. Next up: masters swimming.
I said we should take bets that it doesn’t suddenly decide later to declare itself non-binary for attention and because it only wanted to be a woman to win a bunch of unearned accolades and spy on women in the locker room.
I assume he wouldn’t have surgery. Surgery doesn’t turn you to the other sexuality, it just destroys the sexuality you have. Esp. mtf, you lose your balls, you won’t be a biological father. ftm I suppose they could leave uterus and ovaries intact and build a fake-penis nondestructively, so that if the person changes their mind they could go back to being a functioning female.
And a group of those women wrote to say they disagreed with the anonymous woman who complained about his presence. So some were bothered by it, whatever he did which we don’t know in detail and don’t need to, some were not.
The ‘support’ letter was unsigned, and they’re being cagey about exactly how many there were that supported it.
Sounds like its just a couple vocal woke jackasses supporting him and the rest are just scared to speak up against it.
BATF has recently ruled that, if advantageous and necessary,
“numerous” can be a synonym for as few as “one.”
“WNBA just signed its first transgender player to the league
May 29, 2021 ”
Except she’s an actual woman.
Funny how you never see women identifying as men and demanding access to the mens’ team.
Facts about it:
ze signed almost 10 years ago now….ze got cut from one team and just signed with another.
ze was born a woman, uses woman and man pronouns on different days, got breasts removed, identifies as non-binary and is attracted to women.
ze is VERY confused and yet ze still doesn’t get unfair advantages from birth that make it untenable for other women.
Besides, based on its confusion, it is unclear what days it is even taking testosterone and it has to pass female test levels to compete in the WNBA. Of course, those tests are pretty easy to beat.
Actually, female to male do compete.
“But at an Ivy League swim meet Saturday, a Yalie, Iszac Henig, defeated Thomas in both the women’s 100- and 400-yard freestyle races, the Daily Mail reported.
Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, set a record for the women’s 50-yard freestyle, the outlet said.
Henig was able to compete on the women’s team because she had yet to start testosterone treatment”
Not what he said.
The “female to male” you are mentioning does not compete in the men’s division. It competes in the women’s division and had breast removal, which is actually a slight advantage for swimming.
Also, there’s pretty clear evidence that “Lia” threw those races on purpose to lose to someone and be able to say “a woman can beat me”. “Lia” ‘s times in that race were much slower than in others. “Lia” ‘s own teammate ratted him out.
https://nypost.com/2022/01/21/penn-swimmer-alleges-lia-thomas-colluded-with-trans-athlete-to-lose/
It wouldn’t be the first time a race was fixed.
STOP the madness. There should be three groups. Male, female and other.
Period.
There is no need for “other”
How about just using the old rules from the cold war era Olympic competitions? Soviet Bloc Nations had a few ‘women’ who declined to compete once those rules and standards for determining whether a female competitor had an unfair hormonal, chemical, bone density or other physical advantage were put in place.
I remember those East German women with shoulders that looked as wide as an aircraft carrier.
In her twitter comment ‘Erin, the trail mom’ complains “It is not evidence based.” when discussing the USA Swimming directive.
Ignoring for a moment that Erin’s point of view is entirely dogma based, let’s do some of those science and reality checks on Mr Thomas….
– First, we will draw blood and count X and Y chromosomes – male.
– Then we will have a look between his legs to see what sort of original manufacturer equipment he has – male.
No amount of actual science and factual observation is going to change the minds of the indoctrinated like Erin though.
To state the obvious, there is a medical/scientific test to determine an individual’s sex. Let’s use it, and begin living in reality. Fat chance.
I’m really disappointed to see so many conservatives in media adopt the language of the left. ‘Transgender’ is not a thing. Our current science isn’t remotely capable of alternating someone’s gender. Gender, like race and ethnicity is NOT fluid, never has been and it’s unlikely to be in the foreseeable future.
I suggest we call them what they are: Gender Dysmorphic.
That’s what we call sex. Of course. Gender is defined differently, and just got redefined by USA swimming here. Granted gender used to be a synonym for sex, but it’s been redefined.
I was taught years ago that “nouns have gender, people have sex”. Forms always asked for your sex, not your gender, since people didn’t have “gender”.
This policy is – I think intentionally – too complicated. everyone knows how to tell male from female, without a blood test.
And the whole “panel of independent experts” bit is misdirection. The reason they are called “experts” is so that their decisions, no matter how insane, cannot be contested.
This is a nothing more than a con game. A hoax, to get the rubes off their backs.
“everyone knows how to tell male from female, without a blood test.”
Nah, then you just invite people to game the system.
Get the ‘bottom work” done. You still have a massive career advantage.
Now, what are you going to do about that without a blood test?
He’s either mentally ill or pulling a massive grift on the woke crowd who are allowing it, effectively nullifying Title Nine…gets to walk around the locker room with his junk hanging out, ogling gals coming out of the shower. If that’s the case, he’s winning bigly.
If he’s not intentionally trolling the left, he’s the sickest freak in the news today.
Otherwise, he’s the rightful her to Andy Kaufman’s comic empire.
Exactly. I have yet to full length picture of him suited up…wonder why that would be? Media are complicit in this insanity.
I have no problem with any rules they set to define that category. But it’s weird to change it in the middle of a season.
“Lia” Thomasine freaks his teammates out by sauntering around the ladies locker room with his penis and testes showing? The guy’s a guy and that’s it.
X and Y–
They don’t lie.
Lia Thomas is a guy.
Frankly, I’ve never been much or a sports fan. But, I am durned sick and tired of this endless freak show. Transgenderism has, in my own lifetime, gone from very vulgar entertainment to a sacrosanct idol.
It’s interesting to me that an equity argument was used to justify the redefinition. A study was done to show what everyone knows: top females are slower than top males. And the argument was that since they’re slower, they need a division of their own for fairness, and defined in a way that happens to exclude Lia Thomas.
They can define their categories however they want. They could do a study and show that short swimmers are slower than tall swimmers, to justify a separate division for short people. Or fat people. Or people of different races.
They can define any category they want. It’s interesting that an equity argument was used.
Let me get this straight: many of you believe that a red-blooded, male Division I college athlete woke up one day and decided to “pretend” to be trans and started taking female hormones just so he could win a few meaningless swimming medals??
I think his issues are MUCH deeper than just seeking a competitive edge.
Yes. Instead of being a failure as an male athlete he could be a champion as a female athlete. Set world records and win Olympic gold medals. This opens up millions of dollars in endorsements and commercials.
It is impossible for a person to change their sex from that determined by genetics. All the. doctors can do is create a disguise so they can fool people into thinking their something their not. When a man thinks their a woman or a woman thinks their a man they are denying reality which is mental illness. Society shouldn’t embrace their delusions, instead we should find a cure their mental illness.
But, see, progressives think you can do this!
Remember my little rant about how fantasy worldviews always collapse from internal inconsistency? We see it playing out right now with Whoopi Goldberg.
Whoopi insisted that Nazi hatred of Jews “wasn’t about race.”
And she’s right. Like two sexes, “the (real) Science” says there are three races.
Nazis belong to one, and most Jews belong to the same one as the Nazis, except for a smattering from Africa.
But Joy Behar opened her big mouth and let the cat out of the bag.
“It was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.”
Never mind the fact that that “consideration” was based on total bullshit “sCiEnCe,” exactly like Democrat gender science.
If a Progressive thinks that a man is a woman, then he’s a woman.
If a Nazi think Jews are a “race,” then they’re a race.
It’s not proof that Progressives are Nazis, but the correlation is strong in this one.
All Jews originally have ancestry from the middle east (Sephardis), not Europe (Ashkenazis). And the latter distinction only exists because Jews went into exile from their middle eastern homeland. And, Jews were considered a separate ethnicity/race throughout much of history. It is historical reality that Jews are an ethic group as much as a religious group, scattered today only because of their historical wanderings from their homeland.
So, no, Jews don’t belong to the same racial group as the German National Socialists. Don’t regurgitate Goldberg’s ignorant and stupid remarks.
If we reframe this to ask is Jewish identity a racial identity or a religious identity or a cultural identity then we get closer to the truth. IMO, the answer is simultaneously all and none because the answer depends on whom is asking and who is answering, where this question is posed and at what particular historical or contemporary moment. As with many questions and their answers, the phrase ‘it depends’ looms large at least IMO.
Even official federal government forms, which are ignorant enough to ask if citizens belong to the “Hispanic race” (which doesn’t exist), never ask people if they belong to the “Jewish race.”
You’re talking sociology, which is a “soft” science, not taxonomy, which is a hard science.
Who’s more of a shameless jackass: this guy, or people enabling the moron?
My former brother-in-law “transitioned” to female about 25 years ago. He was a standout in football before transitioning, and as a “she” continued to play against other men. As a 6’2″, 270 pound woman, she would never, ever seriously compete with women. That’s just common sense.
“A panel of three independent medical experts will be charged with reviewing applicants and implementing the policy.”
So do I have to turn my head and cough?
I noticed they didn’t discuss or venture into the issue that a man≠woman conspired with a woman≠man in a previous event; where man≠women let women≠man win, so to take away man≠women’s fact that HE was dominating in breaking the women’s swim records.
This is so utterly and despicable farcical. This lunacy would be right at home in works authored by Vonnegut or Orwell.
Reject all manifestations of tranny narcissism, totalitarianism and fanaticism.
the only two things thomas has proved are that he can’t compete against and dominate other men in his chosen sport and that he can out-swim many women–in a sport where physical strength is a major component, so what?–he can probably out-swim any ten year old as well–in reality, he’s a loser
but then we’re expected to enable him and ignore the reality of a few hundred thousand years of evolution–to the detriment of thousands upon thousands of legitimate female competitors and their years of effort and training–no, just no
regardless of your “feelings” you’re a man, thomas and, at least as a competitive swimmer, you’re a proven loser
Female impersonators are not women no matter how many drugs they take nor how many operations they have.
It’s all in the chromosomes and cannot be altered.