by Evan Stambaugh
A former member of the women’s swimming and diving team at the University of Minnesota has sounded the alarm against the inclusion of biological men in women’s athletics.
On Dec. 19, Jenna Stocker published an article in National Review that called transgender athletes an “affront to the fairness of sports.”
“Nothing has threatened the future of sports more than transgender integration,” she said.
The inspiration for her piece came after a biological male who goes by Lia Thomas made headlines for destroying records as a member of the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team.
Thomas had previously competed on the men’s swim team but recently “transitioned.” It took another transgender swimmer — Iszac Henig of Yale University — to beat Thomas in two events, the 100- and 400-yard freestyle.
Stocker blasted the NCAA in her article, accusing the governing body of all but violating Title IX by “taking away opportunities for women’s advancement through athletic and academic performance.”
“The NCAA’s seeming refusal to acknowledge this shows it cares nothing about opportunity or fairness,” she said.
More recently, Stocker appeared on Newsmax to discuss the inadequacy of the NCAA’s rules on testosterone suppression for biological males who wish to compete in women’s sports. She said testosterone blockers are hardly able to suppress the muscle mass and lung capacity of biological men who’ve trained their whole lives with other men.
Stocker also noted that after two years of testosterone suppression, biological men still have a 12% advantage over women. The NCAA only requires one year of testosterone suppression for transgender athletes.
“In elite athletic sports, 12% — when races can come down to tenths of a second or hundredths of a second — it’s enormous. It’s the difference between first and last in a lot of races,” she said.
A former Division I swimmer at the University of Minnesota, Stocker is now the managing editor of Thinking Minnesota at the Center for the Experiment.
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Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy. In 2016 he was a volunteer, intern, and field assistant for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
Photo “Jenna Stocker” by Newsmax.
