Diana Nyad: ‘Celebrate Transgender Athletes’ But Need Level Playing Field
Diana Nyad, the 72-year-old long-distance open water swimmer who attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida on five occasions before finally making it on her final attempt, has weighed in on the controversy involving whether transgender athletes, including the University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas, should be allowed to compete alongside biological females.
Nyad expressed an opinion that transgender athletes deserve a chance to be celebrated, but she believes that science must be considered in providing a level playing field for cisgender women. She lauded the landmark legislation of Title IX that has protected women’s rights to compete separately in sports in the United States for a half-decade.
“Sports are, of course, partly about inclusion, about opening a lane to anyone who wants to experience the joy that comes from running and scoring and fostering deep friendships with teammates,” Nyad wrote in a Washington Post guest editorial. “But participation isn’t everything; what our society holds high is triumph. And for any athlete, being denied a fair shot at the victories that can make them a hero in their school, their country or even the world is a mammoth loss.”
Nyad emphasizes that “trans women are women,” but she then acknowledges that “trans women who have gone through male puberty acquire physical advantages female puberty does not provide,” including body shape, usage of oxygen and other physical advantages. Nyad argues that “a transgender woman who has transitioned from a testosterone-driven to an estrogen-driven system loses speed and muscle mass, yes, but puberty’s ‘legacy advantages’ do not change with a new hormonal profile.”
In referencing Thomas, Nyad writes that the Penn senior “swam faster than any female college swimmer in history.” That statement is inaccurate, although Thomas does own the fastest times in the country in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle. She writes that “transgender women need the chance to compete, and to win; doing so fairly will make their achievements all the more rewarding” while emphasizing that sports organizations must ” allow cisgender women to run against their equals.”
Currently, it is unclear if the NCAA will adopt new USA Swimming rules regarding transgender athletes, even though the NCAA recently announced it would be deferring to individual sports’ national governing bodies to create policy.
Read Nyad’s full Washington Post editorial here.
Trans women are men, they are in no way biological women and should race as men or in some sort of open category. How can Nyad believe that “science must be considered”, but then believe something that is totally unscientific? By saying a “trans woman is a woman”, she is not following science, but just following the gender identity ideology religion. Trans women are men and will always be men.
If trans”women” are women, then what are women?
Women are women who think they are women?
Men take the word “woman” and now women are forced to use the prefix “cis” to describe ourselves?
Women aren’t “cis” anything, and by using the words that these lunatics have forced on us we are playing their creepy little game. Diana Nyad, stop trying to placate mentally-ill men.
Yes, really just so sad, given her struggles and accomplishments as a biological female athlete. You’d think she’d have insight by now. I am a woman, not a “cis” woman. I am surprised she did not lay out her new definition of “woman” in that opinion piece. It’s quite simple now, apparently: “I am a woman, full stop, if that’s what I say I am. Full stop. And I’ll bury you if you get in my way.”
You are Woman and I hear you roar! Love it!
If anyone knows about cheating, it’s Diana Nyad.
(The science showed that her silly Cuba swim couldn’t possibly have been real).
Is D Nyad a man?