An NBC news segment played into the notion that there is “little scientific evidence” that men have biological advantages over women in sports. NBC’s Jo Yurcaba and Hallie Jackson either chose to lie to their viewers or are stunningly ignorant about basic biology.
Jackson and Yurcaba instead made the issue about whether transgender people can “participate in certain aspects of society,” citing the NCAA’s misguided policy of allowing men to compete against women after a year of testosterone suppression. The question of fairness is skimmed over entirely for a conversation about “inclusion.”
NBC News: “Little scientific evidence” biological males have an advantage in women’s sports pic.twitter.com/zkCClGpq54
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 8, 2022
But it is remarkably easy to see that there are biological differences between men and women and that those differences are on full display when it comes to sports. The lowest level of testosterone generally found in men is four times higher than the highest level generally found in women, and a 2019 study in Sweden found that a year of testosterone suppression did not have any significant effect on muscle mass or the level of strength of men.
A study commissioned by World Rugby found that men “are stronger by 25%-50%, are 30% more powerful, 40% heavier, and about 15% faster” than their female counterparts and that a woman tackled by a man in rugby would have a 20%-30% increased risk of injury. A 2010 study found that, since 1983, men in the Olympics performed 10% better than women generally. In weightlifting, in which a man recently competed against women in the 2020 Olympics, the study determined the gender gap in records was 36.8%.
Even looking at the events that University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a man, competes against women in, you can see the differences. Thomas has competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 500-meter freestyle events. All 51 men who finished the 100-meter race at the 2021 NCAA Division-I championship event finished with a faster time than the women’s Division-I record. In other words, 51 men swam the event faster on one day than the fastest women ever recorded at the same level of competition. In the 200-meter, 42 out of 43 men beat the women’s world record. In the 500-meter, 52 out of 53 beat the women’s world record.
If studies and obvious disparities in records aren’t enough, you could simply use your eyes. A typical high school boys basketball game will often have more dunks than an average WNBA game, which typically has zero. In fact, there have only been seven players to dunk a basketball in the WNBA’s 25-year history. According to Basketball-Reference, 427 different NBA players dunked during the 2020-21 season alone. Six-foot-tall journeyman Ish Smith had one of those dunks, meaning he had more in one season than all but seven WNBA players have had in their entire career.
There is no one who even casually watches sports at any level above high school who genuinely believes that men do not have biological athletic advantages over women. Jackson and Yurcaba have both covered this issue, so both of them certainly should know better than to humor that anti-science claim, especially if they are going to hand-wave away any fact-based discussion of fairness.
