This week, Caitlyn Jenner, the Fox News Transgender commentator and former Olympic athlete known as Bruce Jenner, offered insight into the rules regarding trans athletes, saying that they should be more strict.
Specifically, Jenner said the NCAA rules concerning transgender athletes’ participation in gender-related teams need to be “a lot more stringent.”
Jenner, a biological man who identifies as a woman, appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, the day after swimmer Lia Thomas was featured on Good Morning America. During the appearance, Jenner said that even though Lia Thomas has played by the rules, Thomas has had an unfair advantage as a trans athlete.
“This is not Lia Thomas’s fault. She played by the rules,” Jenner noted.
Jenner said his “concerns are with the NCAA. Their rules have to be a lot more stringent. I think they have to be more difficult.”
“I don’t think just one year of hormone replacement therapy is enough,” Jenner continued.
Jenner noted that he has “for seven years of full transition, been on hormone replacement, and I can still hit the golf ball 280, 290 yards. There’s a lot left over. So I’m not blaming her. I’m just blaming the system right now. That has to be seriously looked at.”
Jenner also noted that from personal experience and looking at Thomas next to biological female swimmers, the advantage of being a biological male “never really goes away.”
“I think it’s very difficult, you know, she did it to be happy,” Jenner said.
“On the other hand, she may be happy, but I’m sure the girl, the cis girls in the blocks next to her, looks over and sees this very large woman who she knows she can’t beat.”
