In a fiery 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, fiercely challenged the views of guest James Barr in a debate on whether to eliminate gender in sports.
The panel also included commentators Esther Krakue and Brandon Tatum from The Officer Tatum YouTube channel.
James Barr asked a provocative question to Gaines, suggesting the unfairness of competition could be rooted in physical differences such as height and strength.
“Riley, I want to ask you a question because a lot of this has to do with sport and how you feel. It’s unfair because you’re up against people with a bigger body, right? So, do you think it’s unfair that someone who’s taller than you or has more strength than you can be on the same team? Is that the argument we’re making?” Barr asked.
Before Gaines could respond, Krakue interjected with, “I think it’s with the chromosomes,” hinting at the biological differences at play.
“Let’s look at swimming across the field consistently. If you look at the world record against the men on the men’s side versus the world record on the women’s side, consistently, that athletic performance gap is ten to 12%. Someone being a few inches taller than me does not make up for that ten to 12% performance gap we’re talking about. By having a man competing against a woman, of course, there are natural advantages that people possess. But what we’re talking about specifically here is beyond comparison to what the conclusion you’re drawing,” said Gaines.
Barr retorted with a radical proposal, “The conclusion I’m drawing is that we should get rid of gender altogether, and we should have sports based on body metrics.”
Morgan, clearly flabbergasted by this, sought clarification on whether Barr meant creating gender-neutral Olympic games.
Barr elaborated, “Because the only reason why, surely you agree, the only reason women’s sport exists is because men were gatekeeping sport for so long, and then finally said, ‘you know what? Fine. Have your own.’ But really, if we just remove gender from sport, then we won’t have this issue.”
Morgan didn’t hold back, “Sorry, James. That is so spectacularly ill-informed and dumb,” and Gaines piled on with a critical question, “Are you saying that we should get rid of sporting categories altogether and have just one big pool?”
Barr attempted to clarify, “No. I’m saying people should compete against people that have a similar body type so that it’s fair.”
Tatum scoffed at this notion, “That makes no sense. You’ve never played sports before.”
Morgan continued to dismantle Barr’s argument, “You just don’t understand it. There is no comparison between the bone density and body mass of males and females. That’s why they separate the sexes in sports. Because biological males would destroy you.”
But it was Gaines’s follow-up question that left Barr speechless and the panel in shock with Barr’s response.
“If you’re saying that we should get rid of sporting categories altogether, do you support the idea of eliminating the Paralympics versus the Olympics?”
Barr could only muster, “I think that’s a really great question, and I need to look into that…,” leading to a collective gasp from Morgan, Krakue, Tatum, and Gaines, who couldn’t believe what they had just heard.
WATCH:
Riley Gaines turns the tables on Piers Morgan guest James Barr, arguing for removing categories from sport:
“Riley I want to ask you a question: Because a lot of this is to do with sport and how you feel it’s unfair because you’re up against people with a bigger body.”
Gaines:… pic.twitter.com/TzM0AOC5Xz— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) March 21, 2024
You can watch the full debate below:
Source material can be found at this site.
