U.S. Columnist Justifies Simone Biles' Criticism Towards Riley Gaines, Claims Trans Athletes Don't Possess Inherent Advantages in Competition.
Informal Redo:
Simone Biles, the acclaimed Olympic gymnast, took a swing at her reputation on Friday night with a puzzling display of blindness, denial, and incompetence. She countered a post from Riley Gaines, a fellow athlete from our site's Minnesota softball team, whose team triumphantly used a male pitcher to secure a high school state championship. Rather than siding with biological fact and common sense, Biles used her platform to unjustifiably attack Gaines.
"You're straight-up sick," Biles exclaimed at Gaines. "All this crusading because you lost a race. You're a sad loser. Instead of uplifting the trans community, maybe you should find a way to make sports inclusive or create a new avenue where trans athletes feel secure. But instead... you bully them... No one in sports is safe with you around!"
But here's the kicker: Biles inadvertently admitted that Gaines is correct in stating males should not compete against females, by suggesting that trans athletes should have their own category. Talk about biting the hand that feeds!
It's a shame that most media outlets would choose to overlook this faux pas and accept defeat on the 80/20 issue. Not USA Today, though! Instead, the stumbling organization published an opinion piece by Nancy Armour that arguably missed the mark more than a blindfolded archer.
The Bizarre USA Today Op-Ed on Simone Biles
Armour's article throws around wild, unproven accusations about both Riley Gaines and biological reality. She accuses Gaines of grifting, causing harm to the transgender community, all while ignoring the undeniable harm inflicted upon girls through forced sharing of spaces, locker rooms, and athletic pursuits with males.
The most bizarre paragraph involves Armour claiming that males don't have physical advantages over females. "There is no scientific evidence that transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women athletes, but that hasn't stopped Gaines from claiming they do," she writes. "She insists they are 'robbing' cisgender women of their places on the podium, and she doesn't care if it's a 12- or 22-year-old she's putting in harm's way in this overheated climate where ignorance and violence are celebrated equally."
It boggles the mind to think someone, a grown adult, actually typed these words in this order and somehow believed they were making a valid argument. Ignoring biology and medical science seems to be the new norm for the modern Democratic Party.
Not only is Armour's claim ludicrous, but she immediately undercuts herself by praising Biles as the most decorated gymnast of all time, which would not be the case if she had to compete against male athletes. This isn't an opinion or debate, it's a simple, undeniable fact.
It's a reality that Serena Williams has acknowledged in interviews, a truth the US Women's Soccer team discovered when they played high school boys, and a fact that led Sabrina Ionescu to lose her cool when a boys basketball player shut her down on defense.
In a world full of Armours and Biles, be a Riley Gaines. Stand up for common sense, biological reality, and sanity.
Enrichment Data:
Physical Advantages: The physical advantages of transgender women athletes over cisgender women are complex and vary depending on factors such as the duration of hormone therapy and the specific sport involved. Research suggests that hormone therapy leads to a decrease in strength, lean body mass, and muscle area for transgender women, but these advantages may still persist even after extensive therapy. Factors like puberty legacy effects and specific sport demands can also influence the impact of these advantages (1).
- The controversy surrounding Simone Biles' stance on transgender athletes in sports has led some to question the policies and legislation surrounding this issue in the realm of general news, politics, and sports, with sports analysis providing a detailed perspective.
- The op-ed by Nancy Armour in USA Today, addressing the Simone Biles-Riley Gaines feud, has sparked debate within the sports community on the matter of physical advantages in sports, further fueling discussions related to policy-and-legislation, politics, general-news, and sports-analysis.
