this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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With the recent issues of transgender people in sports, why don’t we move some sports over to a weight-class system? (midwest.social)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Pandantic@midwest.social to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Obviously this won’t work for all sports, but things like football, track, soccer, it would allow for de-gendered team, even allowing athletes with the skills but not the genetically-endowed physical attributes to have a place to play.

Note: I know very little about sports and being on a sports team, so please point out anything that doesn’t make sense.

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[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 48 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Women (and trans women) naturally carry a higher body fat percentage than men (Incl trans men) a "male" athlete can more safely and more easily carry a lower body fat % and therefore more muscle per kilo. So the weight classes wouldnt be able to be 1:1 if you wanted a level playing field.

There is still the inherent biological advantage in being born male and going through male puberty and developing a male muscular/skeletal system before transitioning. Very difficult to rule around every nuance of this though.

[–] JesterIzDead@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is exactly right and what many people fail to understand. In studies, even after 3+ years of hormone therapy, trans-women still have significantly more muscle tissue than CIS women.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago

And that's without looking at cardiovascular differences, or even as subtle as glycogen storage.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Testosterone is literally a PED.

Its why trans women can compete at a decent level, they'll still rarely be at the absolute top of their sport.

They have to have their testosterone and other hormones monitored and held to average levels. That will always put them at a disadvantage at elite levels versus women who don't have the same requirement.

There is still the inherent biological advantage in being born male and going through male puberty and developing a male muscular/skeletal system before transitioning

Which is completely solved by access to puberty blockers before transitioning.

I did see some article claim that hip to knee ratio didn't translate to athletic performance, and it was so ridiculous I even downloaded the linked PDF that said it was a study, and it was just a pamphlet repeating the exact same claim with no further source.

I mean, there's a clear correlation already with women's sports already. Lots of runners peak early and have worse times by graduating highschool. But it's literally physics. Wider hips just means less efficient running.