What do I think about the problem of transgender people in sport. Chronicle of Veronika Stepanova

World football legend, Megan Rapinoe, said she was completely open to seeing and accepting a transgender woman on the US team: “…Show me all the transgender people who use their transgender advantage naughtily. in the sport ! It just doesn’t happen.”

So far, that may not happen – but at this rate, the wait won’t be long. If the double world champion does not see how an athlete who grew up as a man and became (or declared himself) a woman does not have physical advantages over ordinary women, she should look at the size muscle and bone structure of “ancient men”.

I don’t want to be misunderstood. Saying what she wants and deems necessary is her full right, there are no questions.

The problem is not that Rapino can say such nonsense in public, but that in the West none of the active athletes can now oppose her out loud. Otherwise, you’ll be called a transphobe, and that’s at least “goodbye, all the sponsors”.

Even if, I think that today, in 2023, the case will not be limited to the immediate departure of the sponsors. The management of the club, the national team will have to find excuses, explain themselves.

I don’t know any transgender people in cross-country skiing, but I’m sure it’s a matter of time. Skiing is practiced more or less professionally by hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and we don’t live in the forest. Moreover, we still have a relatively commercial sport, the best earn very well. And here is a chance to become a champion – that is, a champion.

At the end of last year, the following news was rather hotly discussed among skiers. This is the “first sign” in our sport, and therefore aroused interest. Nordiq Alberta, the regional cross-country ski federation for the Canadian province of Alberta, has announced a new gender category. Added non-binary athletes to women and men. From now on, when applying for competitions, it will be possible to choose who you are: a man, a woman or a non-binary person.

In theory, that’s okay – let guys who are confused in their sense of self play in a separate category. But the world doesn’t work that way in practice. Nordiq Alberta states, “…Adding the ability for non-binary athletes to compete in their own category is the first step to making cross-country skiing a more inclusive sport for everyone…”.

First step, you hear? I have the impression that when we return from international competitions, our skiing world will no longer be the same.

I don’t care how a person lives and who they say they are, as long as they (a) don’t try to get into women’s locker rooms or baths.

But the first step towards the emergence of “other genres” in my sport confuses me, and here’s why.

It is quite clear to me that the question will not be limited to one Canadian province or even to all of Canada. In the near future, the non-binary category will also appear in the documents of the ski federations of other countries.

Moreover, the FIS will have to react in one way or another to the “winds of change”. And they will surely tremble. The FIS is an organization that lives by the laws of the Western world. Being branded as transphobic is terrible, they will peck. It is better to admit that you are torturing kittens as entertainment – there will be less hatred. In the next five years, we will receive the non-binary category in all international competitions. As they say, “screen”.

And you, they will say. – Well, a number of people will declare themselves not women, and not men, but someone else, and let them run separately from you, is it a pity or what?

First, yes, sorry. The prize money in this category, of course, will be set at the level of the traditional genders – otherwise, “sex discrimination” will work. And money in our sport and so, to put it mildly, is scarce. They’ll cut us off – they’ll give them back. Or does anyone think that such an “advanced agenda” of new sponsors will lead to ski racing?

Secondly, all the logistics of the competition will fly – women’s and men’s races are not easy to hold in one short winter day, but you have to hold three – for the “non-binaries” everything will be separated.

And no matter how many people show up there – we will immediately be reminded that the first women’s ski races were also five times lower than the men’s in terms of the number of participants, that a hundred years ago there were a lot of opponents of women’s sport in principle, etc. Find a way to justify.

In this case, I think the solution should be simple: until the number of “non-binary” female skiers exceeds, say, 50% in the app for women’s races, in real life, competitions for them should not take place. And in theory and “in principle” they can enter whatever they want. Especially in Canada.

But back to transgender people. For those who have changed sex. Women who choose to become men don’t bother me in any way. But on the contrary – quite.

I know for sure that I won’t stand a chance against even an average skier who declares herself a woman at twenty. And Nepryaeva wouldn’t have it, and even Yohaug wouldn’t have it on top. If now, until the potential candidates have appeared, the boundaries are not clearly defined, there will be problems. Some US states have already passed local laws explicitly prohibiting transgender people from participating in teenage/women’s competitions. World Athletics (the former IAAF) prohibits those who changed gender after puberty from running with women from this year. Why there is no clear prohibition at the level of the International Ski Federation, I do not understand.

I also do not really understand why there is no such ban at the legislative level in our country – this is a ban on men who have changed their sex to participate in sports competitions with women. Do we think this problem will not affect us in some way?