A 29-year-old trans woman has caused controversy after beating a 13-year-old girl to win first place in a women’s skateboarding event in New York.
Ricci Tres was born as a male but now identifies as a woman entered the Boardr Open, which is a street skateboarding contest that is open to skateboarders of all levels but is split into male and female events.
Tres won the female contest and took home the prize of $500, beating 13-year-old girl Shiloh Catori who came second with a prize money of $250.
A total of six skateboarders took part, with four under the age of 17 , including a 10-year-old girl named Juri Iikura who finished in fifth place.
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The result has caused backlash, and fellow skateboarder Taylor Silverman, who is a woman took to social media to reveal how she was beaten in multiple competitions by trans women.
She said: “I have been in three different contests with trans women, two of which I placed second. This totalled $5,000 of the prize money meant for female athletes.”
Silverman lost to a trans skater named Lilian Gallagher in May, and since then, she has used her social media platforms to campaign for the preservation of women’s athletics by calling for competitions to revert to women competing against other biological women and men competing with biological men.
Silverman wrote on Instagram: “I reached out to Redbull and was ignored, I am sick of being bullied into silence.”
“What happened was unfair and at the time I was too uncomfortable to speak up.”
She added: “I understand that in today's society even some women think this is acceptable, but I believe in doing the right thing even if it's not the popular thing. I now realise it's really important for me to speak up and I'd like to schedule a time to talk.”
Last December, the spotlight was on trans swimmer Lia Thomas who comfortably beat other women in the 1650 freestyle, 500 freestyle and 200 freestyle by convincing margins.
Thomas was swimming for the men's team before switching to the women’s team.
A recent poll by Gallup showed that 62% of Americans believe that athletes should only take part in sporting teams that matches their born sex rather than their gender identity.
Topics: USA
Marcus Chan