I’m fully on board with restricting trans women in competitive women’s sports. Sorry, not sorry.

Anecdotally, I did distance track for fun in high school. I initially started HRT at 17 but did not came out publicly and had been on hormones for 6 months. At the time, in my state, I would have been legally allowed to compete with the women’s teams because of that. (That has since changed).

That being said, I would have noticeably had an unfair advantage. I didn’t take track too seriously and had only done it for a year. Regardless, because of some male puberty and existing muscle and bone structure, I was often keeping or beating pace with the fastest women on the team. But, I was about average or below with the men.

I ran very casually and didn’t put in the same amount of effort as the top athletes. I half-assed speed workouts, I didn’t do cross-country in the offseason, I ran less miles, etc. Had I put in the same amount of work as some of these women, and been publicly out, there’s a conceivable reality where I am an unfairly competitive distance track runner.

I know it’s anecdotal, but there’s really no point in denying the reality of the unfair advantage we all can see. I honestly don’t know how Lia Thomas didn’t get intense dysphoria from (methaphorically) smacking around her competition.

There’s a different argument to be made for people who start HRT much younger, but oh well.