As a former track and field athlete who grew up in Oregon, I am disappointed to see the integrity of this year’s high school girls championships jeopardized because of a biological male.
Aiden Gallagher, a boy who calls himself a girl, won gold medals in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dash at last weekend’s Portland Interhigh League Championships, earning him a spot in the 2024 Track and Field State Championships this weekend. Obtained. Gallagher consistently finished first, stealing podium spots from the women who should have been there. Women’s sports are not for men, they are for women.
Today’s female athletes owe a debt of gratitude to pioneers like Betty Robinson, who competed in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam and won the 100-meter race. At that time, men could only compete in 22 of her events, while women could only compete in 5 of her events.
Thank you, Betty. Thank you to all the women who competed in terrible shoes and non-athletic apparel to advance women’s participation in sports to this day. Thank you to all the hard-working women who didn’t stop competing as women when they were told “no” and fought hard for the passage of Title IX, which guaranteed equal opportunity for women in athletics.
Today, thanks to strong, dedicated, biologically female athletes, there is equal competition between men and women in track and field.
This accomplishment is now threatened by the Biden administration’s decision to add gender identity to Title IX and by state and local organizations that fail to protect female athletes by barring men from competition. In fact, the Oregon School Activities Association April letter The Oregon Department of Education’s amended regulations redefining “sexual orientation” to include “gender identity,” claimed male athletes will be allowed to participate in women’s sports if they are consistent with their gender identity. .
Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports will undo all the hard work and efforts that women have achieved over generations.
Regardless of how Gallagher perceives it or what hormone suppressants he takes, men’s bodies have larger hearts and lungs that allow them to deliver oxygen to their muscles faster. They have higher levels of hemoglobin and stronger bone structure.
These are biological facts.
However, men continue to steal medals from women who have worked hard to compete. Hours of intense training meant nothing. As women, we have a duty to each other and to our ancestors to stand up against this injustice.
I will be attending the track and field state championships today to support women who have been denied the opportunity to compete by male competitors. As an ambassador for Young Women for America, I’m here on behalf of hundreds of girls to remind people that women’s sports are just for girls.
People need to stand up for women’s sports. Otherwise, there would be no women’s sports and only male-dominated sports. This would be a huge setback for women as a whole, and a huge disappointment for all the women who have come before, like Betty Robinson, who worked so hard to get women to where they are today.
Caitlin Abbott is the American Ambassador for Young Women at Oregon State University-Cascades. Young Women for America is the university leadership program of her Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
