Alanna Smith’s dedication to her sport is profound. Just listening to the elite high school track star explain her training schedule is exhausting. Yet no matter how hard she trains, if she has to compete against biological males, she stands no chance of winning.
“There is simply a biological advantage that males have over females,” explained the daughter of baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Lee Smith.
“Here is a perfect example,” Smith told me. “I have a twin brother who is an athlete but does not run competitively for his sports. We raced against each other recently, and he beat me. Not because he trained harder, but because there are biological and physical advantages boys have over girls in some sports.”
Smith, who set high school and county records as a short-distance track runner the moment she stepped on the field as a freshman at Danbury High School in Connecticut, says when she turns up to compete against male runners who identify and compete as females, she knows the cards are stacked against her.
And it has nothing to do with not being prepared.
“It is frustrating. I spend all of that time training to compete against other girls, and I find myself losing to biological males,” she said.
Since 2017, two males who identify as female have taken 15 women’s state championship titles in Connecticut. Smith’s frustration led her last February to join with two other elite Connecticut runners, Selina Soule and Chelsea Mitchell, to file a federal discrimination complaint against Connecticut’s policy allowing transgender competition against females. The girls explained that the suit alleges the policy unfairly marginalized them and violated Title IX, the federal law designed to ensure equal opportunities for females in education and school-based athletics.
On Inauguration Day, President Joe Biden issued an executive order saying a court case about transgender rights applies to Title IX, a federal education law that prevents discrimination based on sex. Elite female athletes such as Smith, Mitchell and Soule say Biden’s pro-transgender order underscores their concerns.
Mitchell said she was ranked as the fastest girl in the 55-meter dash in Connecticut high school track in 2019. “Then I went to a high school competition, competing with two biological males who identify as girls,” she said. “I really put my all into it, (but) I ultimately came in third, behind the both of them.”
Soule said she missed an opportunity to qualify for the New England state championship in 2019 by one spot: “Both spots above me were taken by biological males.”
Soule said that two distinct positions can be held about this that don’t need to conflict with each other.
“This is not about not being supportive of the transgender community,” she asserted. “Not at all. This is about fairness to girls and women. you can effectively hold both points of view.”
All three athletes stressed that their objective is even-handedness in women’s sports. “Title IX was created for a reason, and that was to give elite female athletes opportunities to be competitive and successful; the very objective was to have fairness in women’s sports,” said Soule.
Title IX was passed in 1972. In its first 10 years, the number of female athletes had blossomed to over 74,000. By 2020, that number had grown to over 220,000, according to data compiled by the NCAA.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was one of those elite high school athletes in Connecticut in the mid-1990s who was able to shine because of Title IX as an accomplished swimmer for Greenwich High School, and she earned all-state honors in the backstroke. Psaki went on to swim for two years at William and Mary, an NCAA Division I school that currently gives out approximately 200 athletic scholarships a year, including women’s swimming.
A 2020 study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health showed among female and male competitive swimmers, males were increasingly faster than females beginning at the age of 10 years and continuing until the age of 17. In other words, had Psaki — who was also the captain of the high school swim team — had to compete against male swimmers who identified as female, her results may have fallen, despite her devotion to competing in her sport.
When asked about Biden’s executive order and what the White House message is to the girls being forced to compete in sports against biological males, in particular in high school sports that lead to scholarship opportunities, Psaki said: “The president’s belief is that trans rights are human rights, and that’s why he signed that executive order. In terms of the determinations by universities and colleges, I would certainly defer to them.”
In short, she did not answer the question, despite the president making it a priority to place female athletes and male athletes identifying as females in direct competition. Since Title IX, female athletes have been given the opportunity to compete in sports, giving them the experiences that athletics give to the development of the young mind and body, such as organization and dedication, and learning how to manage both the lows of sitting on the bench or losing and the highs of winning or excelling.
It also gives them the opportunity for scholarships, just like the boys.
Soule said that competing in sports is as important for young women as it is for young men and teaches important, lifelong lessons.
“It is one thing to show up at a meet expecting to compete against another girl you know is a worthy rival,” she said. “It is another to show up and know you will lose before you even start because of the biological advantages you can do nothing about.”
Christiana Holcomb, who is representing the three girls for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal foundation, said: “It is because of the advantages of those biological differences that these girls are losing their ability to compete fairly. That is what this is all about.”
Alanna Smith. Photo courtesy of the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Alanna Smith. Photo courtesy of the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Salena Zito is a staff reporter and columnist for the Washington Examiner. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through shoe-leather journalism, traveling from Main Street to the beltway and all places in between. To find out more about Salena and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
If you are born a Male, you compete against Males. If you are born a Female, you compete against Females. If you become transgender, compete against other transgenders. What the F is the problem with that?
Whats wrong with that you ask ? Well you make complete sense ! And that is whats wrong with that. The solution is too simple.
AND has too much common sense..
Progressive Socialist Democrats have a problem understanding simple! Example: they still do not understand the meaning of illegal aliens !
ITS Not that they don’t undertand it, ITS MORE THAT THEY DON’T give a 5h1t..
Its just wrong………so the girls need to just say “we ain’t running against “its”. Ok, it is a disappointment but so is a good part of the rest of your life sometimes.
You have a point and it might work if enough girls get on board and follow through. If at any girl’s sporting event a sissy boy shows up to compete, the girls should say $#@% NO! Then walk off the field/floor. Sissy boy won’t have anyone to compete against. But I would laugh my hind end off if the girls gave sissy boy a darn good thrashing. I realize that not everyone is gifted in sports and not able to compete but a boy competing against girls in sporting events doesn’t make him a star athlete. He’s just a sissy.
IF enough girls quit, it MIGHT do something, but how many will RISK it all, to take a stand? Especially with their parents, often being the driving forces ON student athletes..
To fully advance the Demonic, Dishonorable Socialist Democrat’s destructive agendas of socialism, open borders, gun control, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, “gay marriage” and the like, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with our Constitution, GOD, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the guise of “anti-discrimination.”
Equal rights. Girls are allowed to play on boys team. Female reporters are allowed in men’s locker rooms. So girls now can let trans on their team.
That’s something i’ve often moaned at. WHY IS IT female reporters are allowed in MENS locker rooms after big games. BUT male reporters (from all i’ve seen) are not allowed in the FEMALE sports star’s locker rooms???
These transgenders are cowards, and incapable of competing against their own gender. That is why they insist on running against the real girls, They must have a handicap. And lastly they are all fags.
I don’t know what they are and neither do they. Either way they aren’t girls or women.
Tell that to the Boy Scouts of America. Girls are in the boy scouts but no boys in the girl scouts. Makes no sense. Women wanted equal rights and now they have it and it doesn’t feel right somehow. Careful what you wish for. Sometimes it bites you in the butt. Males against males, females against females, and transgenders ? who gives a .
That’s something i complained against to BOTH my state senators.. WHY CAN GIRLS join the BOY scouts, but boys can’t join the girl scouts? IF we’re wanting True equality, get RID OF BOTH SEXES specific scouts, and just have ONE SCOUTS..
Neither gave me an answer..
Nothing males sense when you let lawyers and politicians define up from down, right from wrong, boys and girls. They’re criminally and socially insane. I can remember at time in the not so distance past where these dopers would be laughed off the stage and run out of town. I never thought I’d see it or say it but as a society we are done for. We have become so tolerant we will endorse or own destruction.
Women, parents especially, are not raising enough hell with the idiot biden and the democrats about this issue! Transgenderism is evil defaming of the body and mind and is horribly unfair to girls and women! Should be outlawed!
They should be their own category and race each other. Since there are only 2 of them they will still get first and second place and they can be all proud and happy.. This will allow WOMEN to compete against women.
Yep the all proud and happy routine. Everybody gets a trophy.
B. S. these people should be in psychiatric help. Sorry you feel like being a female but go do it in your room and no one will bother you or dislike you.
IMO if the’re not at least 5 people to run, to give an actual competition, THEY SHOULDN’T be allowed to run.
It all starts in the Communist run schools and progressive press releases. No normal person wants any of this chaotic ****.
Today with Democrat Party Policy and legislation common sense has become a crime.
Good citizens loose employment because of these evil Democrat Party Policy Laws, thus preventing them from housing and feeding their children.
School Curriculum because of Democrat Party Policy corrupts our civilization in every venue by bad legislation.
Any culture that allows people like The Democrat Party, and their Media Mogul friends to corrupt election counting machines to be thus elected breeds the monstrosities we are witnessing .
I also wonder, WHERE THE HELL is the outrage from all the PROFESSIONAL FEMALE sports stars, such as the women’s national soccer team, or the ladies in the WNBA??
WHY ARE they not speaking out against this?
No, ALL women are hurt, not just these girls, but hey, it is the leftist women who vote for these idiots, be careful what you vote (wish) for. These leftist loons are always the same, scream bloody murder over a 30 some year old questionable accusation against Kavanaugh, a conservative, then when credible accusations come out on old slojoe, crickets, when credible accusations come out against cuomo, crickets. See the double standard and the blatant hypocrisy here, these people are a sick lot. They will attack a plastic potato, but never hold a democrat accountable.
Hell will freeze over, before they ever hold a dem accountable.
Getting pretty cold in NY.
They’re only calling for his resignation. NOT HIS JAILING, which to me, would be TRUE accountability.
After the climate “scientists” trotted out by the left complete their conclusions based on their “data”, they can proceed to “learn” us all about the science of homosexual reproduction. How nature’s reproductive urges to perpetuate the species work via the sperm swimming up the man’s colon, fertilizing a lump of excrement, cell division resulting and the unholy maturing and birth of a . . . liberal voter.
President Biden and the Democrats have betrayed women in the cruelist way, succumbing to a minority pressure after what has been sixty years of hard work. Just think back to starting in the 1960s, forefront were Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and Germain Greer, the speeches, the protests, the interviews, the books and articles all with the purpose of ending male domination in just about everything, workplace, sports, politics, and it worked. there was Title IX, assuring that women had the same opportunities to compete in athletic activities as men did but not by competing against, conceding that there is a biological difference. There certainly was no conflict in supporting Gay-Lesbian rights but now steps have been taken to alter the perception of that concept with a scientifically unprovable and physically impractical idea gender is fluid apart from immutable physical characteristics. Male domination is back!
The people pushing this agenda are nothing but blithering idiots……and the athletes being harmed need to learn where it’s coming from and stop voting for the Commiecrats.
It does make me wonder. HOW Many of the parents of those kids, being impacted by this law, VOTED FOR BIDEN???
These idiots don’t know what’s going on. The only thing they know is, they hate Trump and love BLM. They’re ignorant fools.
Joe Stalin Mao Biden is a treat isn’t he? Women track stars are losing scholarships in track and field, because Joe is fixated on his transgender buddies. Of course Joe Stalin and his Democrat followers do not know what gender they are!
Who knows but senile Joe may be wearing women’s depends.
Joe and Jill went up the hill so he could get a drink of water. Joe peed his pants on the way down and made Jill change his diaper.
99.9% of the Marxist Communist DemocRATS are just Plain Old Bat ****. They want to Demonize the White population while promoting criminals like BLM and ANTIFA. They are basically telling the World the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ Community is normal while Heterosexuals are on the wrong side of Nature. I began my career in the Military back in 1968 when a myriad of disorders would disqualify a person from serving. Homosexuals have been Honorably serving Forever, and it took quite awhile for me to admit it, but I’m OK with allowing thei continuing service. Transgenderism is a totally different thing. How can OUR Military refuse someone with flat feet, but allow someone questioning their sex at birth?? Normal people living on this planet should NOT be forced to accept this Lunacy. We haveTWO sexes, Male and Female. The future of the Worldwide population begins with a Mary and Mark, not Mary and Margaret or Fred and Ted.
Not just that, but if someone can be asthmatic, or epeleptic and get disqualified cause of the meds they need, WHY THE HELL does transgenders, who need IMO WAY MORE MEDICATION, get a pass??
Forget it lady; this is the new Amerika, your rights, like those of religion, guns, and speech are no longer important. Better get used to it, because, at least as I see it, things are not going to get better.
Dr. Frankenstein is alive and well. What other forms of self mutilation does modern medicine allow in the name of inclusion, personnel choice and diversity? Remember the East German “women’s:” swim teams?
Where are all the pink pussycat feminists that came out against the then newly elected President Trump in Washington?
Now you can find one with a pair of binoculars.
So using Democrat “logic”. If a white man identifies as a black man is he eligible for reparations? You are born with certain chromosomes which carry genetic information about your gender. Maybe Fauci can make a vaccine that changes that for you. Or maybe they have already. In all life there is male and female. How you behave doesn’t change that fact. Democrats are taking us done a path that has no return lane.
How about this. Have the rich blacks like Obama, Oprah, black athletes,, entertainers and other successful millionaire black Americans pay reparations to poor white America working for the minimum wage. And while they’re at it have them apologize for calling them racists.
That would never happen.. You’d more likely see cats and dogs mate and frogs fall from the sky.
Remember, Oprah said that a homeless WHITE MAN has more privilege than a BILLIONAIRE black woman does.
And these transgendered men taking 1-2-3 in every women’s event will accept the rewards without shame. In fact, they’ll gloat and the media will fawn all over them. If this is allowed to continue, soon we will have nothing but “Men’s Sports” and “Transgender Sports”.
We need three genders He, She and It, Or maybe none of the the above and/or I’m confused I don’t know.
The Left always accuses the Right of being “anti-science”, especially when it comes to “climate change”. Well, I for one would like to see the scientific research which backs up and legitimizes the idea that a man can actually believe he’s a woman. Let’s see the data.
IMO there IS NONE.. That’s why they consistently BASH anyone who dares ask for it, as being homophobic/transphobic.
I’d like to see the research and science on anything and everything the Democrats claim to be true. Since when did scientists define morality and write laws and rule over us like self appointed Dictators? Can a cow mate with another cow or a Shetland pony? An a bird mate with a fish? Can a Rooster lay eggs? That’s the kind of bird-brain, crack-pot logic and science the Democrats believe in.