NCAA and University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines recently tweeted that athletes should speak up on the transgender sports debate. But so far no one has said anything and Gaines is attributing this to the cancel culture.
On May 8, Gaines said that she would be tagging well known female athletes on the issue of biological males competing in women’s sports giving them an unfair advantage.
Gaines Tweets
“Women are depending, girls are depending on these women with platforms and with influence to take a stance on this, so changes can ultimately be made,” said Gaines to Fox business news.
The first target for Gaines is really Venus and Serena Williams though the sisters have not responded to her tweet.
“I could understand last year, around this time before the Lia Thomas incident really brought this to prominence, I can understand they have sponsorships, that they’re scared of his cancel culture. But now a year past that incident, I don’t have sympathy for that anymore,” said Gaines.
In a David Letterman interview in 2013, Serena Williams had said that she preferred to play against women.
“The men are a lot faster, they serve harder, they hit harder. It’s a completely different game. If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0 in five to six minutes, maybe 10 minutes,” said Williams.
Gaines said on May 11, “They have come out before and they have acknowledge the differences between men and women, especially when it comes to tennis. And I think it’s worth noting that both Venus and Serena Williams lost in a blowout to the 203rd-ranked male tennis player.”
Transgender Issues
Some of the transgender athletes that have made a name in woman sports are CeCe Telfer who was the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA title in the Division II Track and Field and 400-meter hurdle in 2019, swimmer Lia Thomas, who won the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championship, and trans cyclist Austin Killips, who was placed first in the Tour of Gila in the women’s category.
“I think this will get worse before it gets better. How many girls have to be injured playing against a male, how many girls have to lose out on scholarships and trophies and titles? How many girls have to feel violated in the locker room?”, she questioned.
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