Transgender athletes and the myth of inclusion in sports
Today on \u201cPost Reports,\u201d how a college track star\u2019s gender transition changed her relationship to the sport she loves. And Post sports columnist Jerry Brewer on the efforts to include \u2013 or exclude \u2013 trans athletes from the wider world of sports.
Read more:
During the Paris Olympics, female boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu Ting of Taiwan were falsely accused of being transgender, after the International Boxing Association claimed without evidence that the women had failed gender eligibility tests in a previous competition.
The IBA is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee, which defended the women\u2019s participation in the Olympics, and questioned the validity of the IBA\u2019s tests.
The outcry over both women\u2019s participation \u2013 spread by prominent figures such as J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk \u2013 was a prime example of what sports columnist Jerry Brewer has called a \u201cpanic\u201d over trans inclusion in sports in his \u201cGrievance Games\u201d series for The Post.
\u201cI think we think that sports is a place for everyone,\u201d Jerry said. \u201cBut I think there's a myth of inclusion about sports. And I think that we have a long history of exclusion that brave people have had to fight through to make us more inclusive, to make us more diverse.\u201d
On today\u2019s \u201cPost Reports,\u201d host Martine Powers speaks with Jerry about how the promise of sports as a national unifier has buckled under the pressure of grievance and division. And we hear from a college athlete \u2013 Sadie Schreiner \u2013 about what it takes to compete as a trans woman.
You can read more stories from Jerry\u2019s \u201cGrievance Games\u201d series, or listen to audio versions of each essay read by Jerry, at the links below:
- How grievance splintered American sports
- The fight over Jackie Robinson
- The panic over trans sports inclusion
- The media\u2019s role in fracturing sports
Also mentioned in the show is a conversation between Russian writer, journalist and opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza \u2013 recently released from a Russian prison in the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War \u2013 and Post Opinions Editor David Shipley on Washington Post Live. You can hear them talk about Kara-Murza\u2019s imprisonment, his historic release and press freedom on our opinion podcast, \u201cImpromptu.\u201d
Today\u2019s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Peter Bresnan, with help from Lucy Perkins, and mixed by Sean Carter. Special thanks to Dan Steinberg and Donelle Wedderburn.
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