Women’s disc golf has a new rising star, one who also happens to be a biological male. In a situation similar to Lia Thomas in women’s swimming, Natalie Ryan is racking up wins and prize money.
Once again, women will be told to just deal with it.
Joe Kinsey writes at OutKick:
Biological Male is Starting to Dominate Women’s Disc Golf, but Competitors Mostly Stay QuietWell, well, well … look what we have here from the world of women’s disc golf. The biological males have come for one of the wokest sports on the planet. Disc golf is now having its Lia Thomas moment to the delight of those who don’t have a problem with the destruction of female athletics.Biological male Natalie Ryan, who reportedly has been playing disc golf for three years, is suddenly the No. 5-ranked female disc golfer in the world. The sport has watched as Ryan has started to dominate the top U.S. biological female competitor, Paige Pierce.In an extensive report published Wednesday in Quillette, reporter Jonathan Kay laid out the state of women’s professional disc golf. Kay writes about how Ryan is the sport’s equivalent of Lia Thomas, a biological male swimmer who decided to compete for the University of Penn as a female. Thomas of course went on to defeat three biological female Olympic medalists for a title at the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships.
There’s real money involved:
As Kay points out, Ryan showed up to July’s Great Lakes Open in Milford, Mich., and took home $6,000 for a first-place performance. The event was supposed to be a major moment for equality in sports as disc golf had the same first-place prize money for men and women. Then two biological men won both divisions.Then at the most recent Disc Golf Pro Tour event held in Leicester, Mass., Ryan once again won a big-time tournament (+1) and took home $9,000 by defeating the world’s No. 1 ranked female competitor Kristin Tattar, who won $6,000. Pierce finished third ($4,000).
In case you were wondering, disc golf is like a hybrid of golf and Frisbee.
Here’s more from the Quillette report:
Ryan is not the first openly transgender disc golfer to compete in a Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) event—a distinction claimed by a Massachusetts trans woman named Kelly Jenkins. Nor is Ryan the first openly trans disc golfer to win a prominent event—a distinction that belongs to Dutch player Laura Nagtegaal. And in both 2021 and 2022, the PDGA Masters World FP50 championship (for women aged 50 or over) went to a trans woman named Nova Politte (who, at 6‘4”, self-describes as ”the tallest female disc golfer in the world”).But Ryan’s victory was different, because DGLO is such an important tournament. Thanks to its Elite Series classification within the Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT), it ranks as one of the few events that allow top players to compete for the annual Tour Championship, which in turn can yield higher payouts and more prominent media opportunities.
Is the reverse of this ever true?
Are there any biological women dominating men’s sports?
Featured image via YouTube.
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