Check out a widely used photograph of Lia Thomas, the American transgender swimmer, after she won at a major college event last week â and, according to many, sent womenâs sport hurtling towards oblivion.
As Thomas stands on the top step of the podium, she towers over her competitors. They appear to be snubbing her, gathering in a separate trio. It is a stark image of âothernessâ.
Philippa York, who as Robert Millar was one of Britainâs finest road cyclists, asks me to look at that photo and the powerful message it sends. âShe looks 6ft 10in,â York says. âItâs like the three women are actively avoiding her because sheâs a giant, and scary.â
The truth was rather different. The other women were posing for a separate picture, never expecting to be in the same frame. One of them, Erica Sullivan â an Olympic medallist, who had finished third behind Thomas in the NCAA 500-yard freestyle in Atlanta â went on social media to say that the image distorted reality, and not just in the height differential; that other photos of her warmly congratulating Thomas did not suit the prevailing mood.
Which is? âHow many trans-positive stories do you read?â York asks. âIf there are 30 trans stories in a week in a newspaper, do you think any are about a happy person fitting well into life?â
She speaks with anger about âhatefulâ coverage but also with deep concern about the conclusions so many rush to when they hear of Thomas winning a race â âa college race,â she notes, with Thomas nine seconds off Katie Ledeckyâs American record â and conclude that the sporting world as we know it is about to end.
âThe number of people this is going to involve, you could not fill a room, never mind surround womenâs sport,â she says. âIf the incidence of people being trans is 1 in 10,000 then figure out the incidence of elite athletes from there.â
It felt important to talk to York before writing about Thomas, and the wider discussion of trans athletes, because how many of us know a trans person? How much do we engage before forming an opinion? How much do we allow a photograph, and single result, like that to shape our views?
âThe past few years have been a constant ramping up of the idea that trans people are a threat to society,â York says â meaning sport too. She makes a comparison with mainstream attitudes to homosexuality in the 1980s. âPrejudice and fear of the unknown. Section 28 [which banned âthe promotion of homosexualityâ by local authorities], that the gay ideology is going to pervert our kids,â she says.
There is a hysteria about trans athletes, she believes, which is almost entirely derived from a couple of high-profile cases: Thomas and Laurel Hubbard, the transgender New Zealand weightlifter, who arrived at the Tokyo Olympics in a blaze of mixed publicity, failed to complete any of her lifts and left with a rather muted hope that the ideals of Olympism and inclusivity had been bolstered when the reality felt more like relief that she had departed the stage so early.
âThe âscandalâ of Laurel Hubbard, who qualified 16th and finished 16th,â York says. âThat was going to be the end of womenâs sport.
âWe are almost 20 years into the IOC rules [approved in 2004 for transgender athletes to compete]. Since then have there been any medallists at Olympics or world championships? No. Has there been any domination of any sport? No.â
Which does not mean there is not a need for discussion, which is where York and I begin to disagree. The incidence does remain tiny but can governing bodies ignore the issue? Are they not obliged to wrestle with the hugely complex equation of if, and how, fairness for cisgender female athletes and inclusivity (and safety in, say, combat sports) can coexist?
Yorkâs scepticism about scientific findings into the impact of testosterone and, in particular, the lasting benefits of having gone through male puberty even after a transgender woman like Thomas goes through years of hormone treatment, seems to me to collide with a growing pile of evidence that cannot be ignored.
Ross Tucker, the sports scientist who contributed to the decision for womenâs international rugby to ban trans players on safety grounds â âeven though there arenât any at international level,â York points out â believes sports are storing up problems for the future if they allow transgender women to compete freely across all disciplines, especially those in which power and strength are critical.
âBut itâs all âwhat ifsâ,â York counters. âWhat about what has actually happened? Where are the trans athletes dominating? The NHS has about 160 kids who have access to puberty-blockers. Out of those 160 kids how many do you think are going to become elite athletes? It could be hundreds of years.â
In a debate that is so politicised and polarised, we should ask how often we hear a voice like Yorkâs compared to absurdly fearful stories questioning the motives of those who transition.
âA piece about Lia Thomas walking around with genitalia out,â York says. âYou just know it didnât happen. This issue of âwhere are they going to get changed?â Just because you are trans does not mean you are going to sexually assault somebody.â
Then there is the implication that, after changes to the Gender Recognition Act, sport will be distorted by increasing numbers of men volunteering to have reduced testosterone for 12 months to sweep up medals in the female category.
âWhere are the volunteers?â York asks. âTalk to anyone who has reduced testosterone, never mind to the levels the IOC have set. They are not training three, four hours a day for six, seven days a week. They are knackered, they are depressed. If anyone wants to volunteer for that then go ahead.â
York talks of the profound impact of gender dysphoria, physically and mentally, which many take decades to come to terms with. âWhen I transitioned, if I never went cycling again I wouldnât have cared,â she says. âLia Thomas said she was willing to give up on swimming.â
In the United States, the fact that Thomas is allowed to compete in female events split opinions deeply, even within her own team at the University of Pennsylvania, which she represented for three years as Will. One group of anonymous female team-mates complained that Thomas had a biological advantage which would deny them opportunities.
But when York sees the global fallout from an event in which one transgender swimmer came first, fifth and eighth in her three races, she cannot help but wonder how much deeper this goes than arguments about fairness in a swimming pool. When she sees the distortions of that photograph, it raises questions not just about sport but fear and prejudice.
âThe question is not really whether trans athletes can compete,â she says. âItâs, should they exist?â
