Clay Travis of Outkick called out ‘coward’ Katie Ledecky for refusing to answer a question on the topic of biological men competing against biological women in competitive swimming, with Travis saying how ‘shameful’ and ‘pathetic’ it was for the decorated Olympic swimming champion to willingly partake in a New York Times profile piece and yet duck one of the most controversial topics in American sports during the same interview.
Ledecky told the New York Times she ‘preferred not to get into it’ when asked about the ongoing Title IX lawsuit involving athletic opponents of University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans woman who won the 2022 National Championship in the 500m freestyle event as a biological man who had transitioned into female sports.
Thomas’ critics argue that Thomas should be competing against other biological men, and that the entire landscape of women’s sports could be compromised if trans athletes are allowed to use their physiological advantages as men to exploit competitions meant for biological women.
When competing against men at UPenn, Thomas ranked 65th nationally in the 500m freestyle, and 554th in the 200m freestyle. By the end of her career competing as a woman, she was the no. 1 ranked swimmer in the 500m, and was 5th in the nation in the 200m.
Check out the segment below as Travis says Ledecky is a 'coward', noting ‘she knows that there's no basis whatsoever for men to be identifying as women and winning women's championships’, and adding ‘she's too much of a coward to say. I think it's pathetic, shame on her.'”
Clay Travis: “Katie Ledecky was asked about whether she believed, specifically, Lia Thomas, should be able to compete in women's swimming. Katie Ledecky is the best women's swimmer in maybe American history, certainly one of the best ever, and currently the best women's swimmer in the world. People out there are like ‘WELL, SHE JUST DOESN’T WANT THE ATTENTION!’... No, her PR flack pitched the New York Times on doing a story about her because she has a new book coming out, which shares her story and her opinion on many different issues. She refused to take a stand on whether a man should be able to compete in women's swimming.
The cowardice from so many top female athletes who know how ridiculous this is, and who understand better than anybody the difference between biology -- my goodness, swimming makes it readily apparent. There is even an insult that Ledecky ‘swims like a man.’ Well, a man would definitely swim like a man, particularly when he's competing in women's sports. She was asked directly about Lia Thomas winning women's championships and she refused to answer the question.
She's worried about backlash, she's worried about sponsor impact; what she's not worried about is telling the truth, and I find that to be shameful in this modern era. I understand if you’re an athlete and you say ‘are you voting for Biden or Trump?’, and you’re like ‘I just don't want to get into that’, but this goes to the very essence of her competition itself. It would be like if a flyweight boxer was asked whether a heavyweight boxer was able to compete against him. The flyweight would say ‘no, we're different weight classes, that defeats the entire purpose of boxing.’ If a 12-year-old baseball team suddenly had a 16-year-old playing on it, then every parent in America would revolt because that's the reason we have age limits. That's the reason we have weight classes. It's the reason why we have a difference between men's and women's sports.
So the idea that you would have a situation where a prominent women’s swimmer would be unable or unwilling to answer a question, despite begging for attention and begging for a profile piece in the New York Times, I think frankly is pathetic. Katie Ledecky knows it’s BS, she knows that there's no basis whatsoever for men to be identifying as women and winning women's championships. She's too much of a coward to say. I think it's pathetic, shame on her.”
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