Last summer I had the opportunity of watching the crossfit games not in person unfortunately but on YouTube In particular event swim paddle swim the men and women started and play together this is where my second thought moment begin what if man and woman always play together or even against each other. I am a woman and athlete and alongside five other woman I captain sports group here at St John's college called kunai. Kunai is available to women trance and non binary athletes now some of these terms might be new for us so I am going to define some of them the term trance is used to describe somebody who has transitioned from one gender or sex into another.
The term non binary which you will hear me say a lot is used to describe somebody who moves between genders freely or has no gender at all we cannot separate athletes into men and women as we have so strict define them because there are people who do not fit into these categories.
why am I characterizing sports as violent or aggressive a minute ago I wasn't just talking about how competitive and one they could be at I am 4 years at St John's college I have played many different sports but I was raised in basketball I have played for almost over a decade and when I tell people this they have to reactions they either say I love basketball let's play some time or they wish I had never mentioned it.
be fair for people of all gender expressions to play together is it fair that everyone will be judge together through selective media we are led to believe that people with more male characteristics will perform better end of story this is not always the case there are so many more factors that go into an athlete’s success or failure then just there hormones ultimately they fail because none falls have ever been equal athletes have never been equal competition is designed to highlight this some people will win some people will come really close and some will lose the issue really with the idea that there is an even playing field what we are trying to control for hand make sure that we are measuring Is athletic performance and not some other ability but what does it mean to have an even playing field what we are really concerned with is fairness wouldn't we are.
How to control for all of the variables make sure nobody is getting an unfair advantage should we mandate that coaches train all of their athletes the same all athletes should diet the same protein powder and supplements should be outlawed should athletes with prodigious high weight or muscle mass be barred from competition because of their genetics If you take the idea of the even playing field to its logical extreme.
Everyone becomes the same and the purposes of sport like excellence achievement and fun become relevant and meaningless when a trans athletes perform and does well maybe even when it's because of their hormones but when a trans athlete losses or performs average nothing is said about it I think doctor Rachel McKinnon Put it best she is professor and a trans athlete In her recent article in the New York Times called I want a world championship some people aren't happy about it she writes if you think I have an unfair competitive advantage considered this I lose most of my races How can I have an unfair advantage over her if She beats me most of the time and why should my right to complete be contingent on not winning there are now and in the future we will continue to be really excellent and talented trance and non binary athletes but as things stand there is not enough room for them to compete so instead of giving our exclusionary system what If we create a new inclusionary system no gender necessary instead of a separating athletes by the gender we can separate them by them skills and goals the people who want to be really elite and work their bodies and be highly
competitive they played together and the people who want to be active and have fun through competition but not necessary become elite they can play together by putting people of the same goals and skills together we can create better teams that work for everyone Earlier I asked you what it might look like For men and women to play together I also want to ask you what it means to be a great athlete think about some great athletes you might have heard of or know are the great because the score a lot of points are the run really fast that could be part of it but I think it's only part I think what we really mean Is something like this athlete inspire this athlete looks like me and they have show me the wealth of potential In human being this athlete has emboldened me to try harder In my life many more people than we think can be that if they are given the chance to show it
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