DRAFT Grace - Sport

Trans people in sport is a hot topic in 2023. The debate revolves around the balance between inclusivity and fair competition. Trans women have been allowed to compete in the Olympics since 2004, but Laurel Hubbard was the first to actually compete in Tokyo 2021. Other notable trans athletes include Chris Moosier and Mac Banks. Leah Thomas, an openly trans athlete, faced significant backlash when she won a national championship title. The introduction of new transgender policies in 2021 aims to protect women in sport, but it raises questions about fairness and the identity of non-binary and trans individuals. The lack of research on young trans athletes in sport and PE is concerning, as it may discourage them from pursuing their athletic careers. Gender-segregated practices in PE create challenges for trans individuals, such as confusion about which group to join and issues with changing rooms. Studies have shown that trans and gender diverse youth face isolation, harassment, and dropo Following on from what Izzy just spoke about about trans people in the media, I'm now going to talk a bit about trans people in sport, a very heated debate topic which is still very much present in 2023. One of sport's main values is that it strives to maintain inclusivity in all sports, which is a key EDI initiative. Or is this really the case when you look at the public and news articles all talking about how the only thing that is important is fair competition? How do you accommodate for both of these things at once? Trans women's athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympic Games since 2004, however none have actually competed until the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. Laurel Hubbard was the first trans woman to compete in the Olympics. She did not complete any of her lifts and won no medals. A couple of other athletes that have stood out in recent years have been, in 2016, Chris Moosier qualified for Team USA in the duathlon, the first out transgender person to make a US national team. He was considered the catalyst for change after being initially banned from the World Championship race previously. In 2017, Mac Banks was required to wrestle against girls that always transitioned from female to male, despite wanting to wrestle against boys. Despite the negative comments made towards these and other trans athletes in high sport competitions in the past, I have never seen as much uproar as when Leah Thomas won the women's 500 yard freestyle in 2022 in the NCAA Division One National Championship. She was the first openly trans athlete to win any national championship title. Leah had previously swam for the men's team in 2018-2019 and then joined the women's team in 2021 when they'd lost muscle mass and strength due to their testosterone suppression and hormone replacement. From 2019-2021, her time was 15 seconds slower than her time before transitioning and also she'd been beaten by multiple other cisgender women in other races. This massive debate is one of the reasons why there's a new transgender policy introduced in 2021 that was just brought in to protect women in sport. The UK Sports Council Equality Group issued new guidance saying that, in their view, trans inclusion and competitive fairness cannot co-exist in sport. This is due to the retained differences in strength, stamina and physique. In 2023, Swim England released their new policy saying that participants must declare themselves as assigned a female number to compete in the female category. Everyone else must compete in the open category. How can this new policy make sure that sport is more fair when those that are non-binary and trans now have to choose between their own identity and their sport? This just overall discourages people from wanting to continue with sport. The debate of biological advantages is also very much present in why this policy has been introduced. Though I think this is a flawed argument, it's in sport that there's always people that have more of an advantage over others. If you think of basketball players, the most successful ones are always the tallest. In terms of my own personal experience with sport, for a woman I'm well above average height, I'm six foot two, which, compared to other female competitors in swimming, gives me a much greater advantage, though we still compete in the same races and the same events in the same category. All of these new policies and constant debate in the media are going to damage those younger trans athletes and their future careers in sport. There's been no research on this so far, as it is a very recent thing that's just been put in place, but I imagine it'll discourage young trans athletes from pursuing their sport even more, especially when there are so many issues and struggles that young trans people already face when taking part in PE lessons in sport in schools. There's a lack of recent research that mainly focuses on young trans people in sport and PE, as the main focus is on LGBTQ plus members in general. However, a really recent study from 2021 from Neary and McBride showed a couple of the experiences of young trans athletes in PE. One of the examples that they had from their results is from Esme, who's 17, about their experience of going to community sports events. It just shows just how powerful the effects are of gender segregated sports. Esme wasn't sure which sports they were meant to compete in as her school wasn't happy with her being trans, so didn't want her to compete with the girls. Therefore, she wasn't sure where to go or what to do and eventually settled on nothing, and was confused if sport was even for her. It just shows that there's no protective inclusion policy available for trans individuals. As well, the gender segregated practices in the PE lessons means that young people are forced to make decisions about which group they would seek to be included in. Whilst doing that, also having external forces make recommendations and try and force them into areas that they do not want to go. An example would be of the issue of changing rooms. Where do they go? Most trans people reported having to use a disabled toilet to get changed in, whilst some thought this was a positive and being able to have their own space which was much preferred. This did come along with many other students asking questions and occasionally bullying alongside that. And the majority of others just felt that they were completely isolated and left to the second thought. In fact, a recent study from Bergen Cochrane in 2021 found that emergent studies have highlighted how trans and gender diverse youth experience isolation, loneliness, harassment and dropout due to encounters in PE and school sports. I would like to hope this is something that schools and the government will be focusing around to improve and make sure that trans people feel comfortable enough when doing sports and PE lessons. Later on, I'll discuss what solutions the government and teachers could put in place to make sure that this happens.