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I'd love to hear from some actual trans people and activists on what solutions they propose to this. I think most people want to find a spot for trans people to compete, but the current division of Men's and Women's sports doesn't have a great answer for where that is. Maybe making the Men's division more the "Open"/"all gender" division would help, but I could see how transwomen could feel out of place if surrounded by men. Some pro sports leagues are technically like that already, so it wouldn't be too radical of an idea.
>Maybe making the Men's division more the "Open"/"all gender" division would help
That is actually how it works, at least in pro sports. There are no gender restrictions in men sports. Women or trans-people are free to compete with men. For obvious biological reasons, they don't.
That is actually how it works, at least in pro sports. There are no gender restrictions in men sports. Women or trans-people are free to compete with men. For obvious biological reasons, they don't.
It's interesting that boys utterly dominated in all the sprints, but women fared better in the 5k. Something to do with endurance, or experience?
Experience/training does seem to matter more as distance increases, distance runners tend to peak older than you'd think.
Also for sprinting, height matters somewhat, in particular the longer your legs the better you will be to a certain point. Being short and light tends to be better for quick off the mark acceleration, but after that it's more about having long legs and fast twitch muscle fibres to keep the acceleration and speed going for longer. For distance running having more muscle mass is somewhat of a disadvantage as it means you will likely develop more lactic acid and will probably gas out sooner, it's preferably to be lightweight develop a strong lung capacity/VO2 max so you can run fast for longer.
If the boys were taller and relatively muscular, they would naturally have an advantage at sprinting, but over distance wouldn't have as much of a natural advantage. Things like running technique, VO2 max, lactate threshold even just the mental aspects of distance running tend to take longer to develop.
Also for sprinting, height matters somewhat, in particular the longer your legs the better you will be to a certain point. Being short and light tends to be better for quick off the mark acceleration, but after that it's more about having long legs and fast twitch muscle fibres to keep the acceleration and speed going for longer. For distance running having more muscle mass is somewhat of a disadvantage as it means you will likely develop more lactic acid and will probably gas out sooner, it's preferably to be lightweight develop a strong lung capacity/VO2 max so you can run fast for longer.
If the boys were taller and relatively muscular, they would naturally have an advantage at sprinting, but over distance wouldn't have as much of a natural advantage. Things like running technique, VO2 max, lactate threshold even just the mental aspects of distance running tend to take longer to develop.
The disparity in lower body strength isn't as great between men and women, and professionals can train much better for distance running than someone still in high school.
More to do with age than anything. The boys in this sample are a full 16% slower than world record pace for their sex, while the (slightly older) women are a mere 2% slower for theirs. To me, this suggests that the boys haven't yet finished tuning their bodies and their techniques to maximize running efficiency, which matters more than pure power for 5km and up.
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