"Cunning as a Bender, a transgender swimmer": Trump saves sport from devilry

Senior coach of the Russian national gymnastics team Valentina Rodionenko supported the decision of US President Donald Trump, who signed a decree banning transgender people from participating in women's national competitions.

"Of course, this is the right decision. There can be no other opinion here, there's nothing to say. It shouldn't be any other way. There should be no such horror in sports. Otherwise, this is the decision of the United States, but we do not know what decisions other countries and organizations will have. But this is their problem, we would like to deal with our own," Rodionenko quotes Odds.ru .

Meanwhile, as soon as Trump signed the decree, swimmers from The University of Pennsylvania demanded to cancel the results of the competition, where Leah Thomas took part with them.

This is a transgender woman who was previously a guy named Will Thomas. At the student level, already being on hormone therapy, Thomas set several national records and even wanted to go to the 2024 Olympics, but it didn't end with anything but scandals.

The athletes and their parents sounded the alarm a few years ago, complained to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but Thomas was not suspended from the competition, Sport24 reminds.

Moreover, Riley Gaines from Kentucky, who was inferior to Leah at the competition, said that she and other girls had to change clothes in the same locker room with Thomas.

"We were not warned in advance that we would share a locker room with Leah. We didn't give our consent, they didn't ask for our consent, but in that locker room we turned around, and there was a 6-foot-4-inch biological man who pulled down his pants and watched us undress. For me it was worse than the performance at the competition. Probably not even a year, but two years ago it would have been regarded as some form of sexual assault, voyeurism," Gaines told Fox News.

That's in the past now, but Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist, and Margot Kaczorowski are suing University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, NCAA and Ivy League Board of Presidents.

They accuse the institutions of violating the rules for admitting transgender people to women's competitions. This forced the athletes to face a traumatic experience. The girls want compensation for suffering and annulment of Thomas' results.

In turn, the former world boxing champion, Russian State Duma deputy Nikolai Valuev, does not believe that transgender people will withdraw from international competitions.:

"Trump's position on transgender people is real — it's not a game for the public. It is clear that Donald is not lying. But I do not believe that transgender people will leave international competitions. Now this decision of Trump will be an element of "free" Europe in world sport."

And here's what two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasiliev thinks about this:

"Today, liberal politics in the world has led to such an absurdity that cats and dogs will soon be allowed to participate in sports. They will start together with people, if everything went at such a pace. Of course, all this absurdity must be stopped. Women should be in women's sports, and men should be in men's sports. I hope Trump puts an end to this.

I am glad that such a position has appeared. It was necessary to stop this liberal madness. In this case, sane people all over the world, and they, of course, are not all crazy, will support this initiative and will develop further. The most important thing is to legislate the non—admission of men to participate in women's sports all over the world.

Will Trump's arrival help us return to world sport? This is all 100% politics, including the fact that we were suspended from international activities. It all depends on the conjuncture: how profitable or unprofitable the return of Russian athletes will be for Trump.

Trump wants to establish close contact with Russia and our president. And if such a contact does take place, then the return of our athletes to the international arena will also be discussed at this meeting."