Lia Thomas, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, is an excellent swimmer. She often beats her rivals by tens of seconds, breaking records. Her success is based on three things. One is natural talent. Another is relentless training. And the third is biology. For although she identifies as a woman, Ms Thomas was born male. Since humans cannot change their sex, she remains that way.
On the eve of her biggest competition, Ms Thomas finds herself at the centre of the bad-tempered debate about whether trans-women -- males who identify as women -- should compete in women’s sports. That, in turn, is part of a broader argument: should brute biological facts sometimes override people’s deeply held feelings about their identities?
This newspaper believes it is almost always unfair to allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. The advantages of male are so big that no amount of training or talent can enable female athletes to overcome them. Florence Griffith Joyner’s 100-metre world record has stood for three decades. A male matching it would not even make it to the Olympics, let alone the final. In 2016, at an American event for high-schoolers, four of the eight boys in the 100-metre final ran faster.
Sports must therefore choose between inclusion and fairness; and they should choose fair play. That does not mean that trans-women would be barred from all sports. One way to make that clear would be to replace the “men’s” and “women’s” categories with “open” and “female” ones. The first would be open to all comers. The second would be restricted on the basis of biology.
Sport is public, and results can be measured objectively. That means the argument that the material facts of biology should sometimes outrank a person’s subjective sense of identity is easier to make. Some of these arguments will be twisted by those who wish trans-people ill. Such prejudice exists, which should be resisted, too. Most of the time, it costs little or nothing to respect people’s choices about how they wish to present themselves. In the rare cases where rights clash, society must weigh the trade-offs sensitively and with open eyes.
【小题1】Which of the following is NOT the reason for Lia’s success?| A．She is a genius in swimming. |
| B．She devotes herself to swimming around the clock. |
| C．She has undergone physical enhancement tailored to swimming. |
| D．Her physical features afford her advantages. |
| A．outweigh | B．complicate | C．dominate | D．eliminate |
| A．no amount of training or talent can enable female athletes to overcome their identities. |
| B．women’s records pale in comparison with those of male high-schoolers’. |
| C．in the case of trans-women, being inclusive shouldn’t matter more than fairness. |
| D．the gender physical gap which is next to impossible for females to conquer. |
| A．The Legal Rights of Trans-women |
| B．The Balance between Respect and Fairness |
| C．Transgender Athletes in the Olympics |
| D．How to Appropriately Categorize the Olympics |
