Over the past two years I have written on this drama where the courts have stepped in to make sport decisions.
Men claiming now to be women competing in women’s sports has alarmed many and although documented over and over again, the tide it seems is turning against men competing in women’s sporting events.
I have documented this time and again in previous articles with Sport Arbitration decisions, Court decisions, US State Governor’s and yet this still remains a threat.
There is a consensus that a man who holds he is a woman, but with the male physical strengths as described by the sciences, no woman is on a level playing field. And this is the legal drama playing out.
Young women who have worked hard over a long period of time in training and sport preparations, in whatever sport, line up (as it were) and find themselves up against it - from the very start.
US Track Meets have been thrust before the courts by allowing men to compete who consider themselves women.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova, as quoted all over the world and cited in my last article on this subject - it’s cheating.
Yet Cricket Australia has now ruled in favour of men who consider themselves women to compete in women’s cricket leagues. Imagine fast bowler big ‘Hairy Ned’ 6’5” tearing in to the crease with a whip of a lass at the batting crease.
The AFL have ruled, not against the phenomena, but against the fear of injury from a physical male.
Something has gone amiss. Where is straight forward fair play. Where has the reasonable sense of ‘just’ competition gone within the foundational spirit of sport.
One possible solution
There appears to be one possible solution. It is an obvious option for such things as the Olympics. Create events for these people - there is a case to be made that such men have a right to engage in sport - why not against each other.
A few years ago there was a European wheelchair basketball team who competed and did exceedingly well. The problem was they were fit healthy fully abled men and the rules did not discriminate at that time – they were all in wheel chairs.
Rules got changed. Rules can change. The ICC committee on the rules have seen changes over the years. Rules in sport are not sacrosanct.
The Proverbs talk about a just weight ……
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Dr Mark Tronson’s Press Service International in 2019 was awarded the Australasian Religious Press Association’s premier award, The Gutenberg. In September 2020 Summer Moore presented her commission portrait of Dr Mark Tronson holding the Gutenberg plaque. The above photo is the upper part from this portrait.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at: http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html
