Tag: Tokyo Olympics

As the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games approached in July, the media began showing footage of women's competitions in which male-born athletes also participate - and almost always win - thanks to the guidelines drawn up by an all-male group of the International Olympic Committee, which provide for self-identification with "female gender identity" and lowered testosterone levels as the only criteria. The images of these, with a frame that despite the breasts, pink jumpsuits, lipstick and red nail varnish remains [...]

When questions arise about the fairness of trans-identified male athletes competing with women, the usual reply is that their performance has deteriorated since their 'gender transition'. Considering the fact that sports competitions are divided by sex, namely the sexual difference of men's and women's bodies, and not on performance parameters, is it true that lowered testosterone levels would worsen the results of male athletes who say they 'feel like women'? The IOC's decision to admit these men to women's competitions [...].

Some time ago we published "Why allow men to compete with women?" an open letter from Linda Blade to the Olympic Committee. Linda has a lifetime's experience in athletics, but also a great deal of scientific knowledge about how bodies are built and how they move. With her doctorate in Kinesiology and her professional experience, she has been a great campaigner for the protection of women's sports with numerous media appearances to her credit, including a Munk debate [...]

When someone questions the fairness of male-born athletes competing with women, they usually reply that their performance has deteriorated since the 'gender transition'. Apart from the fact that sports competitions are divided by gender according to the sexual difference of men's and women's bodies and not according to performance parameters, is it true that lowered testosterone levels would worsen the results of male athletes who say they 'feel like women'? [...]

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics - this is the official name despite the postponement - will be the first in which male athletes who say they "feel like women" will participate in the female categories, authorised by the IOC in deference to the ideology of gender identity. In Japan, which has been governed almost uninterruptedly since the 1950s by the conservative and pronatalist LDP (Liberal Democratic Party or Jimintō), the situation regarding transhumanism is different from that in Western countries. However, gender identity activists are present, well organised [...]

Anna Vanbellinghen is a Belgian weightlifter and at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo she will have to face New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard, the first trans Olympic athlete, among her competitors. Vanbellinghen says that having any chance with Hubbard is impossible, that this is "a bad joke" for female athletes. She is the first of the Olympians to break the silence, and so far the only one. Vanbellinghen understands that trans athletes need to be able to compete and hopes that a solution will be found, but she can't [...]

This business of male athletes 'identifying as women' in order to participate in women's sports and win easily is simply grotesque as well as violent and misogynistic, and could explode in front of a global audience at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics (unless the pandemic forces a further postponement). Given the high stakes, the number of MtF trans-athletes who will be competing in Japan is growing (while it goes without saying that no FtM athlete is pushing for the next Olympics, as they have their skin as well as their face on the line).