this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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With the recent issues of transgender people in sports, why don’t we move some sports over to a weight-class system? (midwest.social)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Pandantic@midwest.social to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Obviously this won’t work for all sports, but things like football, track, soccer, it would allow for de-gendered team, even allowing athletes with the skills but not the genetically-endowed physical attributes to have a place to play.

Note: I know very little about sports and being on a sports team, so please point out anything that doesn’t make sense.

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[–] Gamers_Mate@fedia.io 12 points 5 months ago (8 children)

I could see this working better than the current system and would undermine bigots argument about an unfair advantage. Though there are people that think being transgender gives people an advantage in chess somehow.

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 48 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Women (and trans women) naturally carry a higher body fat percentage than men (Incl trans men) a "male" athlete can more safely and more easily carry a lower body fat % and therefore more muscle per kilo. So the weight classes wouldnt be able to be 1:1 if you wanted a level playing field.

There is still the inherent biological advantage in being born male and going through male puberty and developing a male muscular/skeletal system before transitioning. Very difficult to rule around every nuance of this though.

[–] JesterIzDead@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

This is exactly right and what many people fail to understand. In studies, even after 3+ years of hormone therapy, trans-women still have significantly more muscle tissue than CIS women.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 10 points 5 months ago

And that's without looking at cardiovascular differences, or even as subtle as glycogen storage.

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