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In a heated exchange on Piers Morgan's show, American swimmer Riley Gaines, known for her legal battle against the NCAA's decision to allow trans swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in women's categories, echoed guest James Barr's views. Fiercely challenged in a debate whether they should be eliminated. Gender in sports.
The panel also included commentators Esther Kraku and Brandon Tatum of The Officer Tatum YouTube channel.
James Barr asked Gaines a provocative question, suggesting that the unfairness of competition might lie in physical differences such as height and strength.
“Riley, I wanted to ask you a question because a lot of this has to do with the game and how you feel. It's unfair because you're competing against guys with bigger bodies, right? So, do you think it's “It's unfair that someone who is taller than you or who has more strength than you can be on the same team? Is that what we're arguing?” Barr asked.
Before Gaines could respond, Kraku interjected, saying, “I think it has to do with chromosomes,” alluding to the biological difference.
“Let's focus on consistently swimming the field. If you consistently look at world records favoring men versus world records favoring women, the difference in athletic performance is ten to 12%. Someone being a few inches taller than me doesn't make up for the ten to 12% performance difference we're talking about. Having a man compete against a woman, of course, has natural advantages for people. But what we're talking about specifically here goes beyond the comparison to the conclusions you're drawing,'' Goins said.
Barr responded with a radical proposal, “What I'm concluding is that we should get rid of gender altogether, and we should play games based on body metrics.”
Morgan, clearly surprised by this, asked for clarification on whether Barr meant to create a gender-neutral Olympic sport.
Barr elaborated, “Because you certainly agree, the only reason women's sports came into existence is because men were playing gatekeeper for so long, and then finally said, 'You know what? ' Okay. 'It's ours.' But really, if we removed gender from the game, we wouldn't have this issue.
Not holding back, Morgan said, “Sorry, James. This is very ill-informed and stupid,” and Gaines raised a serious question, “Are you saying we should get rid of sports categories altogether and just have one big pool?”
Barr tried to clarify, “No. I'm saying that people should compete against people who have the same body type so that it's fair.
Tatum scoffed at the notion, “It doesn't make any sense. You’ve never played the game before.”
Morgan continued to dismiss Barr's argument, “You don't understand it. There is no comparison between the bone density and body mass of men and women. That's why they separate the genders in sports. Because biological males will destroy you.
But it was Gaines' follow-up question that left Barr speechless and the panel shocked by Barr's response.
“If you're saying we should get rid of sports categories altogether, do you support the idea of eliminating the Paralympics versus the Olympics?”
Barr could only say, “I think that's a really good question, and I need to look into it…”, causing a collective gasp from Morgan, Kraku, Tatum, and Gaines, who looked at him. Couldn't believe what they had just heard.
Watch:
Riley Gaines hits back at Piers Morgan's guest James Barr by arguing for removing categories from the game:
“Riley, I want to ask you a question: Because a lot of this has to do with sports and you think it's unfair because you're competing against guys with bigger bodies.”
Benefit:… pic.twitter.com/TzM0AOC5Xz– Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) 21 March 2024
You can watch the entire debate below: