Congratulations to Emma Weyant

[Gynaesaur]

Congratulations to Emma Weyant (20), who, earlier this evening, was the fastest woman in the 500 yard freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving championships.

She has won the silver medal, in deference to Lia Thomas's authentic self.

There's a pro-Lia argument on SM about how Michael Phelps has physical advantages (hypermobility, exceptionally wide wingspan, unusually long upper body, big hands and feet, produces less lactic acid than average) and yet no one argues that he shouldn't compete.
While instinctively I don't agree, I'd like to be able to give concrete reasons for why I think that's different.

I think (? happy to be wrong) that someone who's been through male puberty will still have muscle-mass/lung capacity advantages over women, even if they take oestrogen and whatever else.

I also think men and boys probably have less friction in the first place in terms of getting into sport and men's sport being better funded, promoted etc.

Am I on the right lines? and are there any further concrete arguments?

Look at this shit. They airbrushed a photo of Thomas!

calfkicker.com/nbc-news-slammed-over-photoshopped-picture-of-swimmer-lia-thomas/

@DameHelena

There's a pro-Lia argument on SM about how Michael Phelps has physical advantages (hypermobility, exceptionally wide wingspan, unusually long upper body, big hands and feet, produces less lactic acid than average) and yet no one argues that he shouldn't compete. While instinctively I don't agree, I'd like to be able to give concrete reasons for why I think that's different.

I think (? happy to be wrong) that someone who's been through male puberty will still have muscle-mass/lung capacity advantages over women, even if they take oestrogen and whatever else.

I also think men and boys probably have less friction in the first place in terms of getting into sport and men's sport being better funded, promoted etc.

Am I on the right lines? and are there any further concrete arguments?

There are articles online that debunk those claims, such as this one - www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-makes-michael-phelps-so-good1/

What makes Phelps good is that he has the right kind of body shape and physical advantages over the average man, and has put in effective consistent training. He's not some physical super freak, he just has some slight differences plus effective training which has produced the results. He also has the benefit of being in an effective team with equally good swimmers which means he can usually add 2 or 3 relay gold medals to his individual wins.

The difference between Phelps and those ranked immediately below him is small. The difference between Phelps and any top ranked woman swimmer is vast.

Thank you.
I do think the Lance Armstrong thing, unfortunately, slightly undermines the guy's argument...
But overall it is persuasive.
Unless you're one of those people on Twitter foaming about transphobia, Caster Semenya etc...