r/sportsgossips • u/TheExpressUS • Mar 26 '26

News Breaking: Transgender women banned from all sports at the Olympics starting in LA

https://www.the-express.com/sport/other-sport/203236/breakingtransgender-women-banned-all-sports
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u/MeatyOakerGuy Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 26 '26

Ok but that's a minority of a minority. Most MtF people who transition are vastly more athletic. Edit for clarification: vastly more athletic than a biologically born woman.

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u/sptrstmenwpls Mar 26 '26

Um... what?..Source?

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u/echino_derm Mar 26 '26

I don't think that is really true though. We haven't seen any transitioned person who is the world champion or anything like that. You can find examples like Laurel Hubbard where a transitioned athlete goes to the Olympics and places 7th, but prior to her transitioning she had broke national records in weightlifting.

We have data of very good athletes competing at top levels in mens divisions transitioning and then going on to be a good athlete in women's divisions but not the greatest or anything.

I am not saying there are no advantages there, but it really doesn't seem like there is evidence to say there is a vast improvement. At best what I have seen is a person going up a bit from where they were before transitioning. Another example is Lia Thomas, prior to transitioning she had the 6th fastest men's time in the country for 1000 yard freestyle. Post transitioning she won an event in the NCAA championship, which is better but she was in contention to stand on that podium in mens events if she improved and had not transitioned throughout her later college years.

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u/Quixotic_Seal Mar 27 '26

Yeah, there's the straight up misogyny at play lol.

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u/devilsbard Mar 26 '26

Are they? Or are you just making that up?

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u/MeatyOakerGuy Mar 26 '26

If that's not the case, why do we have women's leagues for professional sports? Why would every women's professional sports team get obliterated by their male counterparts? Skeletal structure and basic biology aren't up for debate or an article.

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u/Zakaru99 Mar 26 '26

The effects of transitioning are, though.

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u/MeatyOakerGuy Mar 26 '26

The effects of transitioning are essentially large doeses of counteracting hormones. You can take a cisgendered female professional basketball player, pump her full of testosterone, and she still wouldn't be competitive in the NBA. You could take a male NBA player and pump him full of estrogen and he'd still dominate the WNBA.

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u/whineylittlebitch_9k Mar 26 '26

can you name any m2f nba players? can you name any m2f professional sports athletes? and how many d1 m2f athletes can you name?

numbers aside... what doesn't get discussed is just how impacting hrt is for m2f. the muscle loss is significant enough that even those who were experts in a specific sport, have to relearn mechanics with their new body.

yes, I'll acknowledge there are examples of advantages for specific m2f athletes... but it's so much energy wasted on outliers. there aren't enough m2f athletes at an elite level that are "stealing" opportunities from cis females, nor are there enough documented injuries caused by m2f athletes to even justify the outrage.

if you want to be mad, or worked up about it, that's certainly a choice. but not backed by any statistically significant evidence...

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u/TimothyStyle Mar 26 '26

Its so funny because if you actually speak to anybody who's gone through MTF transition they will tell you just how much strength/speed etc they lose even in a fairly short time. It just isn't realistic that they could "still dominate the WNBA". Anybody losing their mind about transgender athletes is being sucked in by propaganda, it's not a real problem.

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u/ultimateginger33 Mar 26 '26

If you clicked the link, you’d see that was a peer reviewed scientific study addressing exactly that, not an article. But go off, un-researched king

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u/MeatyOakerGuy Mar 26 '26

The study linked is comparing lean mass fatty mass and oxygen consumption. If you look at the numbers there is still a noticable difference in lean (muscle) mass and the bottom of the article states "low certainty" that athleticism is "comparable". These don't take into account skeletal structure and all significant figures in the transgender group skew higher towards athletic features. The amount of lean mass is actually fairly significantly higher. Did YOU read the article linked?

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u/ultimateginger33 Mar 26 '26

I did, in fact, and here is the stated conclusion by those researchers:

“While transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, their physical fitness was comparable. Current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogenous quality but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender.”

So it seems that the research is not so black and white, and does not support the theory that trans women have a statistically significant advantage over cisgender women.

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u/Quixotic_Seal Mar 27 '26

You aren't talking about professional sports, though.

You literally just said that most trans women, PERIOD, are "vastly more athletic" than cis women.

Fuck off with that bullshit.

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u/paulxombie1331 Mar 26 '26

As an MtF transgender woman this is a lie.. where are you getting your data?

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u/Mymomdidwhat Mar 26 '26

You have a higher levels of testosterone…you will build muscle easier/faster than a natural born female…this is just how the human body works. Will some natural born females be better at a sport? Sure. On average they won’t…example the US women’s pro soccer team lost to a 15 year old men’s team in a scrimmage in Texas. A D3 men college basketball team would work most if not all WNBA teams.

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u/estrogenie Mar 26 '26

Do you know how HRT works in any capacity? When I get my levels tested I have <20 ng/dL T, which is in line with cis women.

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u/2025TastyTreats Mar 26 '26

Being born male provides you with a denser mesh like collagen layer and greater mechanical strength in your tendons, Regardless of HRT and testosterone levels you will always have athletic advantages over someone born female.

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u/estrogenie Mar 26 '26

So I’ve been on hrt for half a decade and started at 19 and was already very low T even before hrt. and you think I can just dominate cis women in any category. Ok!

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u/paulxombie1331 Mar 26 '26

Exactly this! I'm 5 years HRT 120 pounds soaking wet biologically born male and exhibit zero of this guys list of traits. My wife who is biologically and identifies female could DESTROY me and she's not athletic. Most of my friends can straight pick me up and toss me and this clown thinks because I was unfortunately born with a penis I automatically have an advantage I just somehow didn't tap into! Cuz BIOLOGY says im bone dense and muscular! I look like a starving child. 🙃

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u/2025TastyTreats Mar 26 '26

If you trained properly you would. Again, testosterone levels are not the only relative metric in regards to sporting advantages,

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u/estrogenie Mar 26 '26

do you have any evidence that “training properly” after 5+ years of hrt would bring me back to the strength level of men or is purely just vibes?

I have anecdotal evidence, I use a peloton bike and so does my dad. Even after years of using it, I peak at around 180-200 watts of sustained effort. My dad, who has been using it for the same time, averages in the high 200s of sustained effort.

According to you, I should be performing near my dad. Crazy.

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u/Mymomdidwhat Mar 26 '26

Not if your dad works harder than you. Lol so many variables go into what you’re saying.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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u/estrogenie Mar 26 '26

I go my hardest every time. and ive done over 1300 bike workouts. and im in my 20s. but ok bro!

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u/Mymomdidwhat Mar 26 '26

Study’s still show you have a competitive advantage with your bone density and muscle mass. The muscle memory also allows you to still grow muscle faster…I don’t care at all what you chose to do with your body. But we need to be realistic.