When I was a kid, there was no more iconic sports image than Bruce Jenner on the front of Wheaties boxes. Jenner was the American hero of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, winning the decathlon with a then-record 8,618 points. It was a bright spot in a relatively disappointing overall American performance at those games.
Little did we know at the time, that Jenner was already thinking that he may actually be a woman. In an auto-biography, Jenner claims to have had gender dysphoria thoughts in 1976–which would result in a full surgical transition in 2017. It’s unfortunate though, that Jenner did not make those gender issues known before or immediately after the Montreal games, as it would have set an important precedent for sports nearly 50-years later.
Had Bruce Jenner, identifying as a woman, competed against biological males in the 1976 decathlon (which Jenner would have been required to do, as there is no Olympic women’s decathlon) and still won the gold in record fashion, it would have set the standard by which all other trans-gender athletes would be expected to compete. Instead, we are now devolving into two categories of sports competition: the “men’s” division and the “open” division.
Unlike Jenner in 1976, athletes identifying as trans-gender are competing exclusively against biological females at the 2024 Paris Olympics. That follows the pattern set by Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weightlifter who was the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympic games in 2021.
This year has featured controversy surrounding women’s boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who are banned from competitions by the International Boxing Association–which claims that both of the fighters have XY chromosomes. But the IBA does not set the rules for Olympic qualification or participation. Their national Olympic committees defend their participation in women’s boxing, calling efforts to bar them as “unethical”. It should be noted that national Olympic committees exist for the sole purpose of helping their countries win as many medals as possible.
Not competing in Paris is swimmer Lia Thomas–who went from swimming for the University of Pennsylvania men’s team to the women’s team, while also going from the 554th fastest swimmer in the 500-meter freestyle on the men’s side to the 2022 NCAA national champion on the women’s side. Thomas couldn’t even tryout for the Olympics because World Aquatics has an international ban on anyone that has undergone male puberty from competing in women’s swimming–a ban that Thomas challenged and lost in the Court of Arbitration in Sports back in June. World Aquatics has launched a true “open” division where anyone with any gender identity can compete–but it has drawn exactly ZERO entries for any events.
And why should anyone choose to compete in an “open” division when the women’s division is already serving that purpose in so many other sports? A look at non-binary Olympic athletes–who claim they are neither male nor female–shows they also exclusively compete against biological women. Canadian soccer player Quinn won a gold medal on the women’s team in Tokyo in 2021. American BMX bike rider Chelsea Wolfe competed in the women’s division in Japan, as did skateboarder Alana Smith. This year, American 1500-meters runner Nikki Hiltz set a new record at the women’s national qualifying race. Their participation in women’s sports doesn’t draw nearly the protest or governing body reaction because none of them went through male puberty, and they are not taking testosterone as part of any gender transition program.
It is interesting that those unburdened by any gender designation still choose just the women’s division in which to compete. It seems that in doing so, they are undermining the main argument those opposed to trans-gender athletes and their advocates make in defending their participation in women’s sports: that going through male puberty and having higher levels of testosterone provides no physical advantage in athletics. (As an aside, those making the argument that testosterone levels aren’t a precursor to athletic success should also be leading the push to legitimize the Olympic medals awarded to all of those female athletes from the Soviet Union and East Germany in the 1970’s and ’80’s that were so shot up on hormones that they had to shave their faces daily to avoid arousing suspicion).
So if Bruce Jenner had just been able to open up about his personal issues, proving that women can compete with men (so long as they went through male puberty), everything would be so much easier today. And a whole new generation of young athletes would want to be “just like Kaitlyn”.
