Team USA World Masters track athlete Cynthia Monteleone issued a scathing rebuke against including biological men — specifically transgend...
Team USA World Masters track athlete Cynthia Monteleone issued a scathing rebuke against including biological men — specifically transgender women — in women's sports.
What are the details?
In a lengthy essay for Fox News, Monteleone, who has competed in various world championships and is also a track coach, said that if biological males continue to compete on women's sports teams, it will mean the end of women's sports as we know it.
"I’m standing for the protection of women’s sports," she wrote. "At the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Málaga, Spain, I competed in the 200-meter race against a male-bodied athlete, whom I beat by only a few tenths of a second. The next year, the same athlete beat my teammate in the hurdles for a place on the podium at the 2019 World Championship indoor meet in Poland. My teammate had trained harder than anyone I know."
Monteleone said that the trend continues: Her daughter, a high school-age track star in her own right, was defeated by a biological male identifying as a female in her first ever high school track race.
"I had watched proudly as my strong and determined girl did all the right things – made personal, difficult sacrifices to train her body to be as fast and fit as possible for her first race," she wrote. "Yet all her hard work seemed to drift away along with the male-bodied athlete, who had just transferred from the boys’ volleyball team to the girl’s team the season before. The athlete breezed right by her to win first place, leaving her to finish second."
Monteleone added, "How can you win as a female when you’re lined up next to a male body whose strength, heart and lung capacity, and pace are all greater than your own no matter what the 'treatment'?"
She pointed out that the impact of biological men competing against women in women's sports takes more than just a physical toll on female competitors — and often has a detrimental impact on girls' and women's mental health. Further, women biologically have next to no chance of holding any kind of physical advantage over males when it comes to competition sports.
Monteleone added that even when biological males suppress their hormones, they are still 12% faster than their biologically female counterparts — and that's after two years.
"The most important factor is the psychological toll. Many of the girls I coach suffer from anxiety over having to compete against male-bodied athletes. We all know the powerful scientific neurotransmitter connection between our minds and our bodies: When you think you can win, you have a better chance of doing it. It’s proven," she continued. "Yet those of us who dare speak out that competing against males is unfair are told, 'Oh, it’s not that big of a deal. It doesn’t happen that often. Just keep your mouth shut and be quiet.' That’s what I was told when I raised questions as to the unfairness of running next to a male-bodied athlete at the World Masters."
Monteleone said that she's tired of remaining quiet on the local and international stage, and is fearlessly standing up in support of protecting women's sports.
"[K]now this: There is a groundswell," she warned. "From my very own daughter raising her voice along with the young track stars Chelsea Mitchell, Selina Soule, and Alanna Smith in Connecticut, to Lainey Armistead, who plays soccer in West Virginia, to the female swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania who are stressed by the presence of a male in their locker room (not to mention the women who compete, and often lose, against this male-bodied swimmer)."
Monteleone said that the "chorus of voices" protesting against biological male inclusion will soon drown out any other narrative other than the one standing to preserve the sanctity of women's sports.
"Female athletes deserve their chance to receive accolades, awards, and scholarships," she insisted. "We must raise our voices on behalf of fairness and equal opportunity for all women, before the entire category of women’s sports is erased."
No comments