Sports transgenderism has become a hot subject, and the skateboarding community recently faced some controversy.
According to Fox News, this weekend saw the women's division semifinals in The Boardr Open in New York. The top six finishers were a 10 year, a 12-year old, and a 29-year-old biological man.
In the lead was Ricci Tres.
In an interview in November, Ricci talked of transformation:
Ricci was the winner of the SOLUS. On Saturday, the skater won The Boardr Open — winning the $500 women's division prize.
In the top half-dozen of competetitors, two-thirds of them were 14 years old or less.
Second spot was awarded $250 to 13-year-old Shiloh Catori. Catori is currently ranked 133rd on the boardr global Rankings.
Ricci -who, as per The Daily Mail, is a “divorced, ex-Navy father of three” is ranked 838th.
As reported by Fox, the audience was not all that impressed.
On social media, many criticized the competition due to the age and biological differences between competitors as well as female skateboarder Taylor Silverman, who spoke out in May, after coming in second in skateboarding competitions against biological males.
“I have been in three different contests with trans women, two of which I placed second,” Silverman posted on her Instagram on May 17 that came under fire from negative remarks. Silverman then explained that the transgender contestant she fell to in the Redbull Cornerstone skate event took the prize of $1,000 for qualifying along with $3,000 for the finals. $1,000 for the best trick.
As you are aware, the field of athletics has stepped into new territory. In the last couple of years the arenas of sports have allowed males who identify as females to compete against females. Testosterone testing is different between sports. Some sports are starting to tighten their rules in ways that could stop competitors who were previously permitted:
“Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas' Professional Career is Shattered after a A Major Decision”
“Another Sport has Banned Biological Males like Lia Thomas From Women's Athletics”
Furthermore, states like Alabama, Louisiana, and South Dakota have banned biological males from participating in girls' sports.
However, certainly there are many sports that do not follow this line of thought:
Report: Soccer Could Eliminate all Testosterone Conditions for Transgender athletes
Returning to the New York's Boardr Open, many would claim that a person who is 29, regardless of their gender, could have the advantage, at the very least in experience, over younger players. Christina Pushaw — spokeswoman for Governor Ron DeSantis — would be among them. She was on Twitter and inquired why someone who was Ricci's years of age is “competing against children.”
Podcaster Tim Pool pointed out that males have “higher centers of gravity, granting advantages that cannot be removed with [hormone replacement therapy].”
In relation to that, The Post Millennial reports that Ricci has recently failed to meet the requirements for the tournament:
Tres submitted a virtual race to compete in his participation in the USA National Skateboarding Championships, but she failed to make the deadline to submit tests for hormone levels. Then, Tres' testosterone levels were determined as “much higher” than the levels needed to athletes in the women's division.
In an interview with USA Skateboarding around this time, Tres revealed that the athlete was about 200 units above the recommended testosterone levels to meet International Olympic Committee Standards.
The sports world is changing, in a way that it has never before. What's next? It's hard to say. Even though we're dealing in all-new phenomena, it confirms an old concept: the gender battle isn't over.
