Who cares and why is that relevant? In William's race she missed out on a medal place. Whether it is competitive with your daughter's region or not is beside the point.
Girls deserve fair sport, and this young woman has a right to speak out about it. They shouldn't just suck it up because their region is slower overall, that's nutty and a bad message for young women.
Ms Williams seems to care about medals rather than her performance against herself and doing the best she can regardless of the competition, so she should count herself lucky she lives in Maine regardless if she has to race Soren. I’m sorry you don’t see the absurdity of this controversy, but I sure do.
When this affects girls off the podium they are dismissed as not being fast enough to matter, that it 'doesn't affect anyone'. When a girl on the podium is displaced they are dismissed as 'only caring about medals' (like that is bad to care about winning??).
Very condescending and dismissive. Girls have every right to care about winning and medaling, just like boys do.
A male with testosterone competing in a girl's race is the same effect as a competitor doping.
jkjkjjjjlll, I suspect though that you are some 20 something year old guy who has no real history of advocating for female rights and is just inserting himself in the trendy trans conversation just to entertain yourself.
you want to claim you’re arguing and standing up for female rights then why don’t you actually do something that matters and travel overseas and help with human rights abuses in Saudi or clean drinking water and female genital mutilation in Africa?
jkjkjjjjlll, I suspect though that you are some 20 something year old guy who has no real history of advocating for female rights and is just inserting himself in the trendy trans conversation just to entertain yourself.
you want to claim you’re arguing and standing up for female rights then why don’t you actually do something that matters and travel overseas and help with human rights abuses in Saudi or clean drinking water and female genital mutilation in Africa?
Suspect whatever you want... It is irrelevant and your comment just means to diminish the issue.
This is a running website and this issue is related to sports and running.
Transgender runner who competed last year on the boys team wins Maine regionals by a minute and a half. One of the girls who placed lower as a result spoke out in the article below. Allowing this is so discouraging and unfair to young female athletes.
Winthrop senior Haley Williams, the runner-up as a sophomore and junior, finished third in 20:59.11. Williams said she knew second place would be her best possible finish this year, “because as you probably know there is a runner that identifies as female, and they were running the boys’ race last year, and they decided to run the girls’ race this year. And it’s really, it’s very upsetting to me because I’ve worked my butt off all year.”
There’s so much “unfairness” in the world. Is Ms Williams had run in the D3 section races in the north coast or southern sections of CA she would finish dead last or close to it. So, I guess it’s “unfair” that she lost to Soren, but she’s awfully lucky she’s competing in Maine if place in the race is what matters to her most.
Your argument doesn't make too much sense, at least to me. You race who turns up in your category. It's like saying if your daughter lived in Kenya she would have to race for 1000th place because the high schoolers there are so good, she's lucky she is competing in California.
You can't just write everything off as being fine because there are other races that are faster!
As far as caring about "her performance against herself and doing the best she can regardless of the competition" - racing doesn't work like that for most people. You don't turn up to the Olympics and think oh well, I'll just do the best I can against myself. You turn up to try to beat who is there. Which is why, for example, if there is unfairness in e.g. the women's 800m it rankles because people are deprived of medals that they should've won. There are rules to try to keep it a level playing field - categories such as age, sex etc.
I understand that you're trying to draw a comparison between the racing in Maine and the racing in California but it simply doesn't work like that. It would be unfair in EITHER state. If someone raced as a male one year then the next year raced as a female, they still have the advantages from their prior racing and training but not so much that, all of the biological advantages (testosterone but not just limited to that by any means).
If she was in California and e.g. aiming for top 100 and someone knocked her out of the top 100 in similar circumstances I'm sure she'd have a similar argument. It's not about the place for the sake of place, i.e. 2nd place. It's about the fairness and limitations.
Who cares and why is that relevant? In William's race she missed out on a medal place. Whether it is competitive with your daughter's region or not is beside the point.
Girls deserve fair sport, and this young woman has a right to speak out about it. They shouldn't just suck it up because their region is slower overall, that's nutty and a bad message for young women.
Ms Williams had to “run for 2nd” in this race. So what? In the CA southern section she would be running for 100th against girls. Would she feel better in that scenario? The real lesson of all this is being missed in the midst of a lot of trans bashing.
Dude, I'm as liberal as they come, but there comes a time when liberalism crosses into insanity, and this is it. It is not right for a biological male to compete against biological females. It just isn't. Doesn't matter if this was a mediocre race filled with mediocre runners. Fair is fair. If this doesn't stop and soon, one day a biological female is going to be seriously injured by a biological male in a "girl's" or "women's" sport. I don't care what bathroom they use or who they love or how they dress or how they identify. But, competitive sports has to be the line. We have weight classes in combat sports to make it fair and protect the athletes. The same should happen here...biological females and biological males should be separated with regard to sports.
If she was in California and e.g. aiming for top 100 and someone knocked her out of the top 100 in similar circumstances I'm sure she'd have a similar argument. It's not about the place for the sake of place, i.e. 2nd place. It's about the fairness and limitations.
Your argument doesn't make too much sense, at least to me. You race who turns up in your category. It's like saying if your daughter lived in Kenya she would have to race for 1000th place because the high schoolers there are so good, she's lucky she is competing in California.
You can't just write everything off as being fine because there are other races that are faster!
As far as caring about "her performance against herself and doing the best she can regardless of the competition" - racing doesn't work like that for most people. You don't turn up to the Olympics and think oh well, I'll just do the best I can against myself. You turn up to try to beat who is there. Which is why, for example, if there is unfairness in e.g. the women's 800m it rankles because people are deprived of medals that they should've won. There are rules to try to keep it a level playing field - categories such as age, sex etc.
I understand that you're trying to draw a comparison between the racing in Maine and the racing in California but it simply doesn't work like that. It would be unfair in EITHER state. If someone raced as a male one year then the next year raced as a female, they still have the advantages from their prior racing and training but not so much that, all of the biological advantages (testosterone but not just limited to that by any means).
I can see why she was upset.
The sport is fair enough. The girl who finished 2nd here got recognized as the 2nd place runner. The race was to see who ran the fastest over the whole course, and she did second best. Every person in a race could say, “I would have finished ____ spots higher if only _______.”
Transgender runner who competed last year on the boys team wins Maine regionals by a minute and a half. One of the girls who placed lower as a result spoke out in the article below. Allowing this is so discouraging and unfair to young female athletes.
Winthrop senior Haley Williams, the runner-up as a sophomore and junior, finished third in 20:59.11. Williams said she knew second place would be her best possible finish this year, “because as you probably know there is a runner that identifies as female, and they were running the boys’ race last year, and they decided to run the girls’ race this year. And it’s really, it’s very upsetting to me because I’ve worked my butt off all year.”
The sport is fair enough. The girl who finished 2nd here got recognized as the 2nd place runner. The race was to see who ran the fastest over the whole course, and she did second best. Every person in a race could say, “I would have finished ____ spots higher if only _______.”
You don't think it matters because you don't think women are real athletes. We don't have to worry about whether their sports are fair. They just need to be "fair enough," right?
The sport is fair enough. The girl who finished 2nd here got recognized as the 2nd place runner. The race was to see who ran the fastest over the whole course, and she did second best. Every person in a race could say, “I would have finished ____ spots higher if only _______.”
The race wasn't "to see who ran the fastest over the whole course". The race was to see who the was fastest female who ran the whole course. The "girl" who got first is NOT female.
If they wanted to have a race to see who ran the fastest over the whole course then they would run 1 race with everybody, not 2 races separated by sex.
Ms Williams had to “run for 2nd” in this race. So what? In the CA southern section she would be running for 100th against girls. Would she feel better in that scenario? The real lesson of all this is being missed in the midst of a lot of trans bashing.
Dude, I'm as liberal as they come, but there comes a time when liberalism crosses into insanity, and this is it. It is not right for a biological male to compete against biological females. It just isn't. Doesn't matter if this was a mediocre race filled with mediocre runners. Fair is fair. If this doesn't stop and soon, one day a biological female is going to be seriously injured by a biological male in a "girl's" or "women's" sport. I don't care what bathroom they use or who they love or how they dress or how they identify. But, competitive sports has to be the line. We have weight classes in combat sports to make it fair and protect the athletes. The same should happen here...biological females and biological males should be separated with regard to sports.
Transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox earned her second straight win on Saturday, when she TKO’d Tamikka Brents in the first round at a Capital City Cage Wars
Inspiring story, thank you for sharing. And thanks for supporting diversity. You are an inspiration to my memory. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep spreading the word that all people should be celebrated. Let us let this runner inspire us to be champions
There’s so much “unfairness” in the world. Is Ms Williams had run in the D3 section races in the north coast or southern sections of CA she would finish dead last or close to it. So, I guess it’s “unfair” that she lost to Soren, but she’s awfully lucky she’s competing in Maine if place in the race is what matters to her most.
So girls should just suck it up, basically because 'life isn't fair?' What a great massage for young women everywhere.
Yes, they absolutely should suck it up. Everyone knows this never happens, or if it does, it’s so rare that only radical right wing trolls would be concerned about it. You are doubtless a bigot for even bringing it up.
Thus the left speaks.
Anything to avoid having to discuss the very real problem of men pretending to be women, and vice versa.
