A male athlete amputated a finger just to compete in the Olympics

But we tell women they should protest by dropping out of competitions

The Kookaburra: a goofy looking bastard, but nowhere near as goofy looking as a biological male competing in the women’s sport category

Earlier this week, my boyfriend sent me an article about Australian athlete and olympian Matt Dawson, who voluntarily amputated part of his finger so that he could compete in the Paris Summer Olympics.

Dawson plays for the Kookaburras, a field hockey team named after a goofy-looking kingfisher bird. The 30-year-old has already won an olympic medal in Tokyo 2020. After recently—and badly—breaking his finger, he had to make a quick decision: repair it and wear a cast, which would compromise his ability to train for and subsequently compete in Paris, or amputate it. He amputated.

My first thought was about the women who are forced to compete against males in their sports in the name of gender ideology and self ID. They are frequently told that they should storm off their practice field, drop out of their sport league, or refuse to show up on the day of an important competition. Sometimes they do. But it has always rubbed me the wrong way—despite how satisfying it is to see their protest. The man loses, but so do they.

I admit that there’s a difference between an amateur league and professional sport league. Dropping out in protest from an amateur league is one thing—but losing a chance at a major competition is entirely different. It’s not fair for women.

Athletes—male and female—are dealing with both the biological reality of their sex and with the biological reality of their peak physical performance—which occurs during a limited window. And when we tell women that they should protest god-awful self-ID policy that enables males to enter female competitions, we are also telling the women to potentially squander their opportunity during their peak performance window.

“This would all end quickly if the women would just refuse to compete against the men,” is a common refrain. Well, sure. It would also end quickly if these men’s fathers showed up and dragged them off the field by their ears for being such an enormous family (and global) embarrassment. It would also end quickly if [insert situations that I’m not going to describe here but I know we are all thinking about]. But we can’t count these things happening.

Men competing in women’s sports make an absolute mockery of themselves and of women. It’s disgusting. Why should women be forced to lose even more by missing out on the opportunity to play and win at their own sport? Why should we place the burden or expectation on them to make such a huge sacrifice?

A man showed that he’s willing to lose a finger in order to stay in the Olympics. This is how important it is to athletes to compete when they’re at their prime.

Please don’t ask women to drop out. It’s not fair.

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Thanks for reading,

Amy