Jerry Coyne, whose Why Evolution Is True blog is linked on the sidebar, has a fine post from earlier in the month outlining the problems with Lia Thomas' swimming record:
While her performance on the men’s team was so-so, Thomas has become famous by cleaning up after joining the women’s team, breaking record after record and beating her opponents by substantial times. She may well break the records of famous women swimmers like Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin.
…It’s also clear from recent research (see here, for instance), that many of these advantages are acquired at puberty, and even hormone-blocking after puberty (testosterone suppression) won’t eliminate either physical or performance advantages of males, even after three years of treatment. (The International Olympic Committee used to require only one year of hormone suppression.) While Thomas has had several years of hormone suppression, she still shows the physical advantages acquired as a male who experienced puberty, and there’s little doubt that these advantages are making her a champion.
To deny the above is to deny reality. Thomas’s new record of victory largely reflects the physical and phsiological [sic] advantages over women she gained at puberty. While she identifies as a woman (and should be treated as such in nearly every area save sport), she is winning with the advantages gained as a male. This should be uncontroversial to anybody who knows the facts.
I somehow missed that "[T]he Olympics has, for the moment, rescinded its rule on transgender athletes and has no rule in place at all", which I assume means the extremely lax rules published last November.
Much to my surprise, Outsports had a surprisingly open response to the Sports Illustrated interview with Thomas that also sparked Coyne's essay (one of at least two he's written on the subject). I say "surprisingly open" because Cyd Zeigler at least recognizes this is not strictly a left-vs-right culture war fiasco. But her Outsports piece calls legislative efforts to ban transwomen in women's sports "unnecessary". When the sanctioning bodies refuse to understand the differences between men and women, people not under the sway of gender ideology will notice this and act accordingly. When the NCAA and IOC have fallen prey to trans activist bullying, it's time to stand up and be counted.
