[CliffFletcher]

It’s cynical of politicians to call for legislation banning transgendered women from competing with natal women when sporting bodies themselves are already doing so on their own. Cynical, but also shrewd politics, as a recent poll shows fewer than 20 per cent of Canadians feel transgendered women should be allowed to compete in sports and athletics against natal women.

World Athletics (track and field), World Aquatics, and the International Cycling Union have already banned trangendered women who underwent puberty as boys from competing against natal women. Other sporting bodies are likely to follow suit. They reached their decisions after not only examining the scientific literature, but after consulting with the key stakeholders - natal women in competitive sport.

As for the idea that the difference in athletic capability between boys and girls is exaggerated, it’s more the case that our ideals lead us to underestimate them.

My daughter has been playing competitive basketball since she was 10. In community leagues, summer camps, and junior high and high school teams. In spite of her experience, fitness, and skill, she can’t compete at basketball against guys who play at the local courts for fun, let alone boys who play on teams. Last semester, her high school phys-ed class was coed, and the students were free to choose between several concurrent options during class. Despite being on the girls’ basketball team, she did not ever choose basketball as her class activity. Not a single girl did. Because it would not have been at all fun for them to play against boys.

That’s an anecdote. Here’s a stat. In 1988, Florence Griffith-Joyner set a world record in the women’s 100m. Her 10.49 is one of the great and enduring records in athletics. No woman has come close to beating it since. Every year, dozens of teenage boys in the U.S. beat that time at high school track meets. In some state high school meets, every boy in the final beats 10.49.