Serena Williams is the greatest female tennis player to ever lift a racquet.
She’s dominated her sport in such a spectacular manner that it’s made her one of the richest, most successful sports stars in America.
In 2017 alone, she earned $27 million from prize money and endorsements.
One of the major contributors to her triumphant career has been her extraordinary physique: Serena’s a tall, powerful woman.
She’s 5ft 9in, weighs 155lbs and can bench press 225lbs.
When she was just ten years old, she beat US men’s champion Andy Roddick 6-1 when they were both junior players in Florida.
But if they had played each other again when he was Men’s World No1, Roddick wouldn’t just have won, he’d have annihilated her.
To be honest, Serena Williams would be lucky to pick up even a couple of points
Aged ten, Serena Williams demolished Andy Roddick. But when both were number one as adults? Roddick would have annihilated Serena. That's not a sexist thing to say, it's just fact
And it would likely be exactly the same outcome if she played any of the 1000 best male tennis players in the world.
(John McEnroe said 18 months ago that he thought Serena would rank 700th in men’s tennis, but other experts said he was being very generous)
This has got nothing to do with her incredible talent, and everything to do with her physiology.
Male tennis players are just bigger, stronger, faster than her.
And Serena is one of the biggest, strongest, fastest female tennis players in history.
So it’s not ‘sexist’ to say the top 1000 men would beat Serena – it’s a cold, hard, statistical fact.
Now imagine a scenario where a 25-year-old male player ranked say, No200 in the world, and earning around $100,000 a year, suddenly decides he wants to identify as female – either for genuine transgender reasons or for duplicitous, fraudulent, cynically commercial reasons – and now wishes to compete against women.
That player, if he underwent hormonal treatment to reduce his testosterone levels to the required levels, could spend the next 3/4 years playing as a woman on the women’s tour.
He, now she, would instantly be the best female tennis player that’s ever lived.
She would destroy Serena Williams, and every other woman player.
She would win every major tournament, break every women’s tennis record, and win tens, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
And she would kill women’s tennis forever.
Oh, and if she then wished to, she could retire, and announce she was now identifying as male again.
That is the potentially ruinous scenario tennis legend Martina Navratilova recently articulated in a newspaper op-ed that promptly made her the most hated LGBTQ woman in America.
‘A man can decide to be female,’ she wrote in the Sunday Times of London, ‘take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he do desires. It’s insane and it’s cheating.’
Yes, it is. And to those who scoff at the notion sportspeople might go to that kind of length to cheat, I scoff back: some sportspeople, as the likes of Lance Armstrong sadly reminded us, will go to ANY lengths to cheat if there is big money to be made.
Martina Navratilova articulated what is obvious, yet within hours she was vilified and dropped as an ambassador to an LGBTQ group
Within hours of the column appearing, Navratilova was dropped as an ambassador for Athlete Ally, a US-based organisation that campaigns for LGBTQ sportspeople. They said her comments ‘perpetuate dangerous myths’.
She was viciously vilified on social media, and accused of being ‘transphobic’.
Yet Navratilova, who herself faced huge amounts of abuse when she courageously came out as gay in 1981, has been one of the loudest and most loyal ‘allies’ to the LGBTQ community for decades. She even hired Renee Richards, the first transgender tennis star, as her coach.
That though counted for nothing. For daring to challenge the undeniable inequality created by transgender women participating in women’s sport, she had to be brutally attacked and punished.
Navratilova, faced huge amounts of abuse when she courageously came out as gay in 1981, and even hired Renee Richards, the first transgender tennis star, as her coach, seen here with her in 1987. But that now seems to count for nothing
Yesterday, Navratilova posted a new response to the growing furore, apologising for using the word ‘cheating’ but reiterating her concerns.
‘I am not trying to exclude trans people from living a fully, healthy life,’ she said. ‘All I am trying to do is make sure girls and women who were born female are competing on as level a playing field as possible within their sport.’
She has been widely supported by other athletes including former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies who said transgender women should not be permitted to compete in female competitions.
‘There is a fundamental difference between the binary sex you are born with and the gender you may identify as,’ Davies said. ‘To protect women’s sport, those with a male sex advantage should not be able to compete in women’s sport. Every single woman athlete I’ve spoken to, and I have spoken to many, all of my friends in international sports, understand and feel the same way as me. It’s not a transphobic thing. We have no issue with people who are transgender.’
Davies was also promptly accused of being a ‘transphobe’ and ‘sharing hate speech’ by transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon who recently became UCI Masters Track World Champion despite having a vastly superior size advantage (she is 6ft and 200lbs) over female rivals.
British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies has also been branded 'transphobic' for saying transgender women should not be permitted to compete in female competitions. ‘There is a fundamental difference between the binary sex you are born with and the gender you may identify as... It’s not a transphobic thing. We have no issue with people who are transgender’
Transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon, center, recently became UCI Masters Track World Champion says it's 'hate speech' to criticize her and other transgender women from participating
It’s the go-to weapon to silence anyone these days – just call them a ‘phobe’ even when they respectfully suggest something is self-evidently unfair.
I’ve watched all this with astonishment.
First, at the fact we are even having this debate when Martina Navratilova is so obviously right.
Second, that anyone like her who dares to say this is being subjected to the most appalling bullying in a bid to silence an opinion the notoriously aggressive transgender lobby doesn’t want to hear.
(I was on the receiving end of transgender activists’ social media vitriol after conducting a perfectly sympathetic interview with leading trans spokesman Janet Mock a few years ago - and it was deeply unpleasant. I’m sure I will be again for this column.)
Amid all the debate-suppressing fury though, the facts speak for themselves.
As more and more transgender women compete in women’s sport, so their performances grow more and more dominant.
Two transgender girl sprinters Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, left, demolished all-comers in the sprinting races in state’s high school championships and finished one-two
In Connecticut, two transgender girl sprinters Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood just demolished all-comers in the sprinting races in the state’s outdoor championships, running way faster times than the nearest biological female runner.
One of their competitors, Selina Soule, said: ‘We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it’s demoralising.’
She was keen to stress that she too is not remotely bigoted towards transgender people. ‘I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.’
In Brazil, Tiffany Abreu became the first transgender player in the top-flight women’s volleyball league in 2017, after a lengthy career as a male competitor.
In Brazil, Tiffany Abreu, right, became the first transgender player in the top-flight women’s volleyball league in 2017, after a career as a male. Competitors are mad
Her record performances since have enraged some female players. Ana Henkel, a four-time Olympian for Brazil in volleyball and beach volleyball, wrote an open letter to the IOC saying: ‘This rushed decision to include biological men, born and built with testosterone, with their height, their strength and aerobic capacity of men, is beyond the sphere of tolerance. It represses, embarrasses, humiliates and excludes women.’
Of course is does.
The irony of this debate is that the transgender community has rightly fought for years to win equality and fairness.
Yet now they are fighting equally ferociously for the right to have an unfair and unequal advantage over women in sport who were born biological females.
I, too, have no issue with transgender people and want them to have the same rights as everyone else.
But it’s not ‘transphobic’ to believe that transgender women have an unfair edge in women’s sport that is purely down to their biological male bodies.
It’s just common sense.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/05/piers-its-unfair-for-transgender-women-to-compete-in-womens-sport-and-outrageous-to-bully-martina/
Main photo article Serena Williams is the greatest female tennis player to ever lift a racquet.
She’s dominated her sport in such a spectacular manner that it’s made her one of the richest, most successful sports stars in America.
In 2017 alone, she earned $27 million from prize money and endorsements.
One of the ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/04/13/10556924-0-image-m-4_1551706684741.jpg
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