Opinion: Should sports transition to a coed model?

There is absolutely no way women can intertwine themselves into male teams. Men and women should continue to be separated in sports. The impracticality of a coed sports model in which males and females play together is enough to eliminate this idea for good. 

Our simple biological differences make transitioning to mixed-gender sports impossible. Males have inherent biological advantages that make them superior athletes over females. Men possess a taller body height, larger lung capacity, stronger endurance and a bigger heart. During puberty, men receive significantly more rapid muscle growth in comparison to women, explaining the notable strength difference between males and females. There is no loophole around this. Talent and hard work do not compensate for womens’ biological differences. 

An integration of teams consisting of men and women would pose serious safety concerns and lead to unfair advantages. In contact sports such as football, females do not possess the physicality to sustain a tackle from a male player. Even in volleyball where the sport is dominated by 78% women, a female team can not save a 75 mph spike heading straight toward them or outlast a team of stronger and taller men during a 50 shot rally.

Let’s take a look at Georgian professional tennis player Nikoloz Basilashvili who is ranked 344 in men’s tennis. His fastest serve is 143 mph. Iga Swiatek, a Polish professional tennis player, is ranked one in women’s tennis. Her fastest serve is 114 mph. Even a male ranked top 400 in the world makes the number one ranked female look easy to beat. 

According to “There’s Good Reason for Sports to be Separated by Sex” written by Steve Magness of The Atlantic, he writes, “Take the queen of track and field, Allyson Felix. The 11-time Olympic medalist’s best 400-meter time ever is 49.26. In just the 2022 season, that would have put her 689th on the boys’ high school performance list.” Felix, a world class athlete, would not even be able to compete with high school boys.

Separating sports by gender provides opportunities for both male and female athletes to excel. Female athletes are still able to showcase their skill and talent in a fair competitive environment with other women. Women should be able to play a sport they love with a chance of winning. Incorporating a coed model would result in a concentration of athletic dominance among male athletes and elite female athletes would cease to exist. 

All of us sports fanatics love a game because of its unique essence and appeal that causes us to be so immersed into the sport. We must not let sports transition into games of disparity and disaster. Hopefully, we never see Lebron James dunk on Brittney Griner.