Sara Gross composes an informative and thought provoking piece on transgender athletes in triathlon with several insights from female-to-male transgender athlete, Chris Mosier. “Triathlon has an opportunity to help transgender athletes by welcoming them with open arms all the while allowing our assumptions about what it means to be “man” and “woman” to be challenged and transformed.”
Text by Sara Gross | Lead image by Challenge Wanaka|Getty Images
2006 Whistler, Canada: Downhill mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq won her third Canadian title. At the awards ceremony, second place finisher Danika Schroeter removed her jersey and replaced it with a white T-shirt reading “100% Pure Woman.” During the five years prior, Dumaresq had her cycling license revoked and renewed twice and a petition circulated asking for her disqualification. The reason? Dumaresq was male at birth and had undergone sex reassignment surgery a decade earlier. Despite being considered both medically and legally female (her birth certificate now reads female), and having been granted a 2006 license to race as a woman by both the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) and the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI), fellow competitors continued to protest Dumaresq’s presence at races throughout her career.
Consider this: What will happen when triathlon has its first transgender professional?
Michelle was very open with her competitors about her past. Many had become close friends and training partners. Most were extremely open and accepting of Michelle and who she is – until she started to beat them.
Obstacles for transgender athletes and questions of equity are legion. Cultural norms around the categories “male” and “female” run deep in our personal and collective identities. Consider how quickly we become uncomfortable when someone walks by who is not immediately identifiable as male or female.
When exactly does a person stop being
a woman and start being a man?
In the sporting context, unlike other realms of life, we compete as men and women as a means to maintain equity for women athletes. But the definition of what makes a man a man and a woman a woman is not as black and white as we assume. Biological sex is not binary, but rather forms a continuum. When exactly does a person stop being a woman and start being a man?
What makes a woman a woman is her XX chromosomes, but some women possess XY chromosomes while retaining all the physical characteristics of a woman. Some women possess excessive male hormones, a condition known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. One in every 2000 people are born with both male and female physical attributes. While transgender people are not the same as those born with intersex conditions, the above outlines the fact that MALE and FEMALE are not the tidy medical categories we assume they are.
A transgender person is someone who psychologically identifies with the opposite gender to that which they have been assigned at birth.
(c) JasonSetiawan.com
In triathlon, female-to-male transgender athlete Chris Mosier recently qualified for the 2015 ITU World Duathlon Championships in the M35-39 age group. USAT follows the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) policy for transgender athletes which was set in 2004 as follows:
Athletes can participate in the category consistent with their gender identity as long as they have: 1. Undergone sex reassignment surgery; 2. Had hormone treatments for at least two years; and 3. Received legal recognition of their transitioned sex.
Based on this, Chris is still waiting to find out if he can compete at the World Championships. In a Huffington Post article Chris states:
“While many other sporting leagues are unsure of how to handle transgender participants, the IOC policy affirms that transgender athletes exist, but in the same breath it tells me that I’m not good enough to compete as a man if I do not have an extremely expensive, complicated and imperfect procedure done to modify my body.”
He goes on to say:
“While most transgender age group athletes competing for fun could likely get away without having genital surgery, there is a possibility that my participation could be jeopardized or turned into a public scandal if someone wishes to contest my eligibility. In the past two years, I have placed consistently in the top three of the most competitive men’s age group in the sport and in the top 10 percent overall at each of my races, and recently won my age group and placed fourth overall in an iron distance triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). The happiness and feeling of accomplishment — proving wrong everyone who said I would no longer be competitive after transition to male — was indescribable. So too was the concern that it would all be taken away if the right person chose to Google me.”
(c) Zhen Heinemann
Simple observation tells us that society as a whole is not quite sure what to do with transgender people. Moreover, the governing bodies in sport are equally confused as to what would be considered just. Chris’s views on athletic performance are refreshingly ungendered:
“Great athletes come in all shapes and sizes. And genders. There are athletes assigned female at birth who can definitely hold their own with men. I do think transgender men can be successful in the sport. It will just take the right person to make it to the pro level.”
As triathletes, we should not find this difficult to comprehend. In Ironman races, some of the best runners off the bike are women. Kate Bevilaqua recently became the first woman to win an Ultra Distance triathlon outright. Chris assumed that when he transitioned he would go from competitive woman to middle-of-the-pack man, but the opposite has proven to be true “I’ve gotten more and more competitive in the male age group, working toward the elite level.” Chris says in an Advocate article, “My hope is that athletes who are questioning their gender identity can see me and hear my story and know they don’t have to give up their identity as an athlete to live authentically.”
“Great athletes come in all shapes and sizes.
And genders.” - Mosier
Chris also feels that the argument that male-to-female trans athletes have physical advantages over their competitors is moot: “There are women out there beating men in races,” he said in a Vice Sports article. “There are tall and short men and we don’t discriminate against tall or short athletes. Michael Phelps had long arms, but he didn’t get disqualified for having a competitive advantage. That’s just how he was built. There’s so much variation within genders anyway, a lot of the transphobia is built around that.”
The medical profession, at least those with experience in the area of transgender and sports, agree with Chris. The overwhelming consensus is that after a given period of time on hormone replacement treatment, there is no physiological advantage for a male-to-female transgender individual.
(c) Zhen Heinemann
The counterargument is that the social and physiological advantages of being born male still play a role regardless of hormone status. Perhaps. But as society moves closer and closer to equal opportunities for women and girls in sport, that argument falls short.
Transgender issues in sport go back to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics where Polish sprinter Stella Walsh won a gold medal in the 100 meters. Four years later, she took silver. In 1980, Walsh was shot and killed in Ohio in a robbery gone-wrong. An autopsy revealed that Walsh had male genitalia. In the 1940s, Czech runner Zdenka Koubkova competed as a woman but transitioned to a man after retirement. High jumper Dora Ratjen reportedly had intersex genitalia but lived his life as a man with the exception of a three year period in which he was forced by the Nazis to pose as a woman in order to compete in the Olympic Games.
In 1966, a chromosomal scan called the Barr body test removed some of the gender questions. After a 1968 test determined that Austria’s Erika Schineggar, the women’s world downhill-ski champion, was chromosomally male, she underwent months of surgeries and returned to competition as a man. The Barr body test was discontinued in 1992 because, as discussed above, chromosomes are not the only factor distinguishing the sexes.
“I never felt like ‘the transgender athlete’
on our team.” - Mosier
The most famous transgender athlete is physician and tennis player Renée Richards, néé Richard Raskind. In 1977, the New York State Supreme Court ruled that Richards could compete as a woman in the U.S. Open. Fears of an unfair advantage for Richards were not met however, as she was knocked out in the first round.
In fact, fears of trans women dominating women’s sports have never been realized. Golfer Mianne Bagger may have won Australian national amateur titles, but once she began to play against the pros in the Ladies European Tour, she was quickly relegated to also-ran. Similarly, while MMA fighter Fallon Fox’s 5-1 professional fight record may sound amazing, she competes in the minor leagues and, as often happens when fighters step up, she would be literally beat up if she competed in the top-tier Ultimate Fighting Championship, according to a Washington Post opinion piece.
(c) Matt Powers
So if female-to-male transgender athletes can hold their own in competition against men who were born male, and male-to-female transgender athletes have yet to dominate the dojo, then what’s stopping governing bodies, event organizers and sponsors from being more supportive? For Fallon Fox, the solution is education: “All of us, especially LGTB youth who are struggling to find their way in a world that often excludes them, deserve the respect of inclusion, on every level.”
Triathlon has a unique opportunity to provide an environment where trans men and women can feel empowered and develop increased confidence as athletes with the associated spillover into life in general. Chris’s experiences with the triathlon community have been largely positive and have helped fuel his work as an advocate:
“In general, I’ve found the triathlon community to be extremely welcoming since transition. My teammates were great when I came out. For most, I was the first transgender person they had met or talked with. There was a small amount of educating that happened, mostly around pronouns in the beginning, but for the most part my teammates educated themselves. In a short time, I simply became one of our guys. I never felt like “the transgender athlete” on our team or in the New York City triathlon community. I appreciated that their acceptance came so quickly and without issue; it has allowed me to be a vocal advocate for inclusion in athletics without fear of being out impacting my place on my team.”
Chris goes on to say:
“Genitals do not make one fast or slow, so the requirement for body modification, as is the IOC rule, is completely unnecessary. Athletes at the recreational and age group level should be able to compete with the gender with which they identify, period. Sport does so many great things for community building, making friends, and learning self confidence, self discipline, goal setting, and more. People who want to compete should not be denied participation.”
41% of transgender people attempt suicide, compared to 4.6% of the overall population.
The experiences and observations of transgender athletes like Chris have the power to transform our understanding of who we are as athletes and also, who we are as people. Maybe the seemingly clear cut boundaries between “man” and “woman” aren’t what they seem. And maybe that very reality can lead to new heights of sporting performance.
What’s clear is that the triathlon community should make a conscious effort to be part of the solution, not the problem, for the trans athletes among us. As Chris says:
“Being transgender doesn’t mean all of our sports dreams go away. However, transgender people are underemployed and can still lose their jobs for being trans. It is difficult to find sponsors as an out transgender athlete, and therefore difficult to dedicate the training time to making it to that level. There are still challenges for transgender people in other areas which while not in sport, directly impact one’s ability to compete.”
Shockingly, 41% of transgender people attempt suicide, compared to 4.6% of the overall population.
Triathlon has an opportunity to help transgender athletes by welcoming them with open arms all the while allowing our assumptions about what it means to be “man” and “woman” to be challenged and transformed.