Priscilla's Workshop

 This blog entry will irritate many people for a variety of reasons. So what?

FINA wrote and adopted a new rule regarding the inclusion of transgender swimmers in elite competitions. Not only is the new rule ridiculous, the end result will hurt women's elite swimming because there are so many ramifications. 

Yesterday I saw one of my neighbors running behind his son's stroller going down the street. My neighbor, a very smart guy, is clearly not an athlete, more suited to chess than running. I turned to my husband and said, "It used to be a pejorative and frowned on to say that someone "ran" (or threw, or swam, or caught, or fill in your own sport) like a girl, but that is what FINA wants." So if everyone swims like a girl, does swimming improve? At the London Olympics, the average height of the US women's swimmers was 6'1". Any notion that the size of the competitor can be indicative of the power of the swimmer is clearly true if only because of the leverage gained but height alone is not a given for talent, and it isn't only men who are tall.

Lia Thomas, whose inclusion on the Penn women's team began most of the brouhaha around transgendered swimmers, did not even win all of her races at the Ivy championships nor at the NCAA meet.  Was she beaten by men? Nope, Lia Thomas lost to other women. Oddly enough, as a long time competitive swimmer and coach, I can say that none of the teams I swam with or coached ever broke down workout lanes by gender. One woman on my last masters team refused to swim in what she termed the "chick" lane because she believed that swimming behind and beside men made her faster and better. Her comment was more sexist and derogatory than anything else that happened at the pool.   

When I lived briefly in Colorado, I worked out at the Air Force Academy and one day the coach pitted me against one of the men's coaches, a guy who had been an Olympic swimmer but who was not competing any more. She made us swim in one lane and do an 800 meter for time and she encouraged me to eat his lunch. For me the only worry was the turns because I have very bad eyesight and cannot always tell where someone's arms and legs are in the pool with my goggles on. But we touched the wall simultaneously and he asked me why I didn't try to pass him at the turns. I have had a few injuries in the pool and I told him I knew I could catch him on the last 50 meters without endangering myself. He was about half my age and bigger than I (I am not even close to 6'1"). Did he swim like a girl? Hardly.

Competition can be positive or destructive. Psychology plays an enormous role in how one approaches life and if you think you are a loser, then you will be. It isn't the opponent who defeats you in most races. If you want to be a better swimmer you need to improve your technique (no gender difference involved there); you need to work out wisely (no gender difference there); and you need to believe in yourself not in the other person (no gender difference there). 

As a funny end to what is clearly my own opinion and experience I have another story. One of the last masters meets I competed in was an IGLA competition. Though I am not a lesbian I coached an IGLA team and so I usually entered the meets as well. It was the last day of what had been a five day meet and everyone was very tired. There were one too many women for the final heat and I asked permission from the meet referee to swim in the final heat of the men, thus turning three heats into two to end the meet sooner. This was allowed but when I got on the block one of the timers said, "This is supposed to be a men's heat." The start judge turned to me and said, "Just tell him you're in transition, honey."