Transwomen athletes so far have been a hit and miss

[GrandizerII]

Despite all the doom and gloom from the right, and the sensationalist headlines, we still to this point have not seen transgendered athletes crushing the competition. We have seen a handful over the years win in some of these sports, but nothing to suggest any incredibly unfair advantage over their cisgendered counterparts. They win sometimes and lose more times, and they aren't generally winning championships or breaking records. You'd think that if the advantages they enjoy are so unfair, they'd win almost every single time and smash records repeatedly.

Let's consider the example of AB Hernandez, that transgendered female athlete who won two high school state events this year in track and field. Great, she took home two golds in one day which is an impressive feat in and of itself, but is it that impressive that she shouldn't have been allowed to participate in high school girls' sports? Let's dig into the details just a little bit to find out.

There were three events she participated in the California high school track and field championships (May 2025): high jump, long jump, and triple jump.

She got second place in long jump, losing to a cisgendered girl. Hmmm, ok, maybe she didn't train properly for that, so let's let it slide.

For high jump and triple jump, she got first place. But hold on, she didn't break any records in either of these two events. In fact, a good number of cisgendered girls in past years have done better than her in these competitions. See, for example, Tara Davis-Woodhall 2017 record for triple jump clearly surpassing AB's personal record (as a bonus, see her personal record for long jump also).

And one of the girls AB competed with in high jump in this competition did better in a previous competition earlier this year. Both AB Hernandez and Jillene Wetteland managed to clear a height of 5 feet, 7 inches but Jillene also cleared a height of 5 feet, 10 inches in an earlier competition.

So the takeaway here is: details fucking matter. If heaps of cisgendered girls have done better than her, changes are high she is not enjoying an unfair advantage over cisgendered girls.

See AB's 2025 record for triple jump here (and Jillene's record for high jump):
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/S...ate=157502

And compare to Tara's 2017 record for triple jump here:
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/S...tate=80281

[Mister Agenda]

Riley Gaines has come a long way on the grift that she tied with a trans woman athlete and they got fifth place instead of her. They were both beaten by four cis women. Gaines owes her entire career as a right-wing grievance profiteer to placing sixth at a regional meet hardly anyone watched in the first place.

[Rev. Rye]

Frankly, trans athletes being hit and miss should be exactly what we expect. Case in point: three years ago, Lia Thomas caused a major hissy fit when she won the 500 meter freestyle at the NCAA women’s Division 1 swimming championship. Naturally, they ignored that, in other events in that same championship, she didn’t win, and even got dead last in the 200 meter freestyle.

And, naturally, in their desire to fearmonger, they failed to notice that she had failed to touch the record set by cis woman Katie Ledecky, or that, for that matter, even her best as a woman is still dwarfed by her “masc mode” best.

This is shit I was able to divine from her Swimcloud page:
https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/314430/

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

This is one of those topics that I have a hard time caring about. But carry on.

Boru

[GrandizerII]

Frankly, trans athletes being hit and miss should be exactly what we expect. Case in point: three years ago, Lia Thomas caused a major hissy fit when she won the 500 meter freestyle at the NCAA women’s Division 1 swimming championship. Naturally, they ignored that, in other events in that same championship, she didn’t win, and even got dead last in the 200 meter freestyle.

And, naturally, in their desire to fearmonger, they failed to notice that she had failed to touch the record set by cis woman Katie Ledecky, or that, for that matter, even her best as a woman is still dwarfed by her “masc mode” best.

This is shit I was able to divine from her Swimcloud page:
https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/314430/

Another example is Laurel Hubbard. I remember very well a few years back how much of a fuss they made about her, how she was going to easily and undeniably bring home the Olympics gold because she was pretty much a buffed up powerful man and there was no way this person was going to lose to any real woman.

Much to everyone's shock, though, she failed immediately in the first round and couldn't get a score higher than 0. And several cisgendered women ended up being ahead of her.

So then came the excuses. She was already old, worn out, was struck by nerves, unlucky, yada yada yada. It's like their fantasy of the man being so ultra strong was shattered that they had to come up with all sorts of excuses.

But here's the thing. 43 years old may be too old for sports, but it is not THAT old, especially when you're competing against women who are supposed to be so weak in comparison to a man. And if Laurel Hubbard still had retained the unfair advantages of being a biological man, should we really think any of these are good excuses?

Furthermore, even if she had been younger by a few years, it likely wouldn't have made much difference anyway, as there have been some impressive cisgendered women weightlifters who can lift heights significantly better than Laurel ever could.

[Rev. Rye]

If they maintained unfair physical advantages, then they were canceled out by some serious disadvantages that came about directly because of hormones. Things like losing muscle mass or lung capacity. And that's why a cis man can't just claim to be transgender and expect to dominate in the sports world.

[The Grand Nudger]

No one who knew the first thing about it, including the sports organizations themselves, are surprised. By the time the public got worked up over the issue the odd trans person had been competing for years and regulations were already in place. Thus their move to kids sports for the grievance engine - where athletes had just begun and perhaps not completed their transition. They thought this would be brilliant, but it just reminded everyone what a joke funding for girls sports was in the first place.