Caitlyn Jenner called out the NCAA’s rules on transgender athletes in response to University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas telling ABC News that biologically male athletes do not threaten women’s sports.
Thomas, a biological male, said the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) rules on transgender athletes have been around for over decade without biological males dominating competitions and has aspiration to compete in the Olympics in a Tuesday interview. While speaking to “Fox & Friends,” Jenner criticized the NCAA’s rules regarding transgender athletes competing with females.
“This is not Lia Thomas’ fault,” Jenner said. “She played by the rules and did a good job in playing by the rules. My concerns are with the NCAA. Their rules have to be a lot more stringent. I think they have to be a lot more difficult. I don’t think just one year of hormone replacement therapy is enough … I’ve been on for seven years of full transition, been on hormone replacement, and I can still hit the golf ball 280-90 yards. There’s a lot left over. I’m not blaming her, I’m just blaming the system right now. That has to be seriously looked at.”
Thomas won the 500 free event at the NCAA Women’s Championships by 1.75 seconds March 17 and the morning qualifier by 2.97 seconds, a time greater than the gap between the 2nd and 11th place winners. The swimmer ranked #462 nationally when competing in the men’s division, then jumped to #1 in women’s. (RELATED: Caitlyn Jenner Slams NCAA, Says It ‘Caved To Woke Mob’ By Allowing Lia Thomas To Dominate Female Sports)
Jenner, an Olympic champion, said the biological advantage among those undergoing hormone treatments does not entirely disappear, meaning an athlete having undergone one year of hormone therapy will create a significant disadvantage for their fellow competitors.
“When she’s standing on the line, she’s taller, bigger, she’s got a longer reach, she’s got bigger hands. She has got a tremendous advantage over the women,” Jenner continued. “But I respect her right to be able to transition, but I think it’s very difficult. She did it to be happy, and she talked a lot about in the interview, about being happy.”
“But on the other hand, she may be happy, but I’m sure the girl, the cis[gender] girl, and other girls a block over from her sees this very large woman who she knows she can’t beat. I don’t think she’s that happy. I don’t think the person that missed out on making it to the NCAA by one position who now all of a sudden doesn’t go, I don’t think she’s happy.”
Jenner said biological men should not compete in women’s sports and the NCAA needs to review their rules in order to prevent trans athletes from dominating sports.
“I’ve said from the beginning, I don’t think biological boys should compete in women’s sports. It’s just not fair. I’ve always been out to protect women’s sports and I think we need to do that. And the only way you’re going to do that is to really look at these rules and find out what is going to work where a trans athlete does not have a big advantage over the cis women.”
The host asked Jenner whether Thomas should bear responsibility for choosing to compete alongside women.
“I’ve always felt from the beginning that along with this transition, there also comes an awful lot of responsibility, an awful lot of integrity and people will be watching on how you deal with this issue and how you treat other people. And I think that’s really important. Lia’s young, she just graduated from college, and I think in a lot of ways she’s done a good job, but in other ways it’s been difficult because she’s been out for her happiness, but the happiness of a lot of other people has not really been considered.”