# (NON-political):  How would/do cisgender female athletes cope against men or trans athletes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-political-how-would-do-cisgender-female-athletes-cope-against-men-or-trans-athletes/834123>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [May 17, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-political-how-would-do-cisgender-female-athletes-cope-against-men-or-trans-athletes/834123 "2019-05-17T18:30:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-political-how-would-do-cisgender-female-athletes-cope-against-men-or-trans-athletes/834123/21 "2019-05-24T21:15:08Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> How about transmen vs. ciswomen? If we posit an environment where transmen are allowed to take hormone therapy, but where the governing body of a sport still considers them women, would the therapy hormones (which are very similar to banned performance-enhancing drugs) give the transmen an edge?

[https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/high-school/high-schools/2018/02/22/transgender-wrestler-mack-beggs-one-year-later-difficulty-defiance-new-uil-drama](https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/high-school/high-schools/2018/02/22/transgender-wrestler-mack-beggs-one-year-later-difficulty-defiance-new-uil-drama)

A two time girls wrestling champ in Texas is a trans man, though he was on very low testosterone dosage.

At the college level, he will wrestle with men (and in national events he has been doing so).

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2019, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-political-how-would-do-cisgender-female-athletes-cope-against-men-or-trans-athletes/834123/22 "2019-05-28T13:38:51Z")

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> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> Not a bad idea. A male athlete with low muscle mass is going to not weigh much (muscle is very dense) and might be physically comparable to female athletes of a similar weight.

Men and women of equal weight are not of comparable athletic ability. A 140-pound male athlete is faster and stronger than a 140-pound female athlete; equal weights even the field a little, but not enough.

Dividing a sport into weight classifications is really quite necessary in, say, boxing, where a substantial weight disadvantage is such a huge gulf that it would make the sport pointless and unfair. If you had no weight classes in boxing, heavyweight would be the only weight class. It would not be good for the sport. In most sports, though, weight and size is not AS relevant. Elite sprinters weight anywhere from 150 to 200+ pounds. It just wouldn’t be practical to have weight classes in most sports.

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**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-political-how-would-do-cisgender-female-athletes-cope-against-men-or-trans-athletes/834123/23 "2019-05-28T13:50:20Z")

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> [@RickJay](#):
>
> Men and women of equal weight are not of comparable athletic ability. A 140-pound male athlete is faster and stronger than a 140-pound female athlete; equal weights even the field a little, but not enough.

I guess looking over some stats, even top female athletes rarely go below 14% body fat percentage, while males often go as low as 6%. Even accounting for a heavier skeletal structure, a male of equivalent weight is still going to have more muscle mass.

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