Sport is a social activity that involve physical movement and/or endurance. The inclusiveness of sport events is a major issue since the rising of feminism#.
Although most sports separate men and women from competing each other in order to have a relatively fair tournament, a research 1 found that there is no significant difference in performance between female and male on long distance running especially for 100 miles (160.9344 km) and up. This indicates that men and women are possible doesn’t differ much in endurance sport such as ultra-running, e-sport and swimming.
There are concerns over the participation of transgender especially trans women in sport competition. Some raise the issue that trans women could have more testosterones compare to their cis counterparts which would be unfair to them in some sports. However, having more testosterones doesn’t necessary mean a significant advantage. The deciding factor is the lean body mass (LBM) which measure the muscle density. Testosterones do influence LBM but there are some exceptions when the athletes have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS, a disorder that the body doesn’t react to testosterones).
If the trans woman has done her gender reassignment surgery before puberty, the concern about the exceeding testosterones and higher LBM is not necessary as she didn’t gain any muscle from such development. Therefore, it should be less of a concern when it comes to the participation of transgender in grade, middle and high school sport events.
That being said, trans women that done the surgery after puberty does have significant gain in muscle density even after 1 year of hormone therapy. The current policy, which dictate that trans women (that done the surgery after puberty) can only participate in women sports after at least 2 years of hormone therapy, should be sufficient for the trans women to not have notable advantage over cis women.
Some points out that even after 2 years of hormone therapy, trans women still retain some LBM advantage over cis women. However, if such logic established, cis women that has significant gene advantage over her peers would be excluded from the women sport. For example, US women basketball team has a ridiculous height advantage over developed country’s teams. If such disparity is disallowed, then the sport has to be too exclusive that nobody would like to watch or participate. The key point is that sport is never fair to begin. As long as it is entertaining where the results are predictable, then such disparity should be endured.