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New York Times science reporter Azeen Ghorayshi got attention this week for her report on Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, the transgender athlete who has fueled a national debate over whether transgender women should be participating in women’s sports.
Thomas made headlines over the past months after repeatedly shattering swimming records just two years after competing as a biological male, trouncing her female competitors.
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In a report published Wednesday, Ghorayshi tackled the question, “What defines a woman?”
“These thorny questions over the nature of athleticism are not new in women’s sports,” Ghorayshi wrote. “They have come up many times over the past century, typically when an athlete deemed too masculine started to win. Sports authorities have leaned on medical tests — whether anatomical, chromosomal or hormonal — to determine eligibility in women’s categories, while requiring no analogous tests for men. But in the realm of elite physical performance, where extraordinary biology is the rule, science has never provided neat answers.”
Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
(AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
The articles addressed controversies in women’s sports over the decades with experts weighing in on the subject.
One expert, London’s Adult Gender Identity Clinic director Dr. James Barrett, suggested transgender women might have a disadvantage in some sports, given their heavier musculature, telling the Times, “Trans women by and large aren’t winning across the board … It’s not obvious that there’s necessarily an advantage at all.”
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The Times reporter did, however, acknowledge, “Still, because of development during puberty, transgender athletes may have some lasting physical advantages in a sport like swimming, such as a taller height and larger hands and feet.”
Ghorayshi shared her report on Twitter, writing, “Lia Thomas is just the latest elite athlete in the last century who has been subject to anatomical, chromosomal or hormonal scrutiny to compete in women’s events. One thing they all have in common? They were winning.”
Critics mocked Ghorayshi’s remark.
“‘Chromosomal Justice’ — ‘Elite athlete’ — Lia Thomas was a mediocre performer when racing against men,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha reacted.
“It takes an enormous degree of credulity to believe that the scrutiny here isn’t a result of Thomas having been a member of the men’s swimming team at the same university as recently as 2019,” political commentator Drew Holden wrote. “I just don’t understand how anyone acting in good faith can compare the dubious use and application of testosterone tests of female athletes to pushback when someone who was competing as a man three years ago is now competing as a woman.”
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“Please explain what ‘chromosomal scrutiny’ means,” The Spectator contributing editor Stephen Miller told the Times reporter.
“We’ve finally found a way to trick feminists into defending men,” Substack writer Jim Treacher quipped.