USA Boxing, the national governing body of the amateur sport, has changed its rules about transgender athletes, releasing new guidelines added to its 2024 rulebook that allows biological men to box against female competitors.
The organization has drawn criticism for allowing so-called trans women to fight biological females in the ring.
Olympic female boxing coach Cary Williams recently told the Daily Signal Podcast the result could mean the death of a female athlete.
Even one man competing against women is “all it takes to do damage; that’s all it takes to kill a woman,” she said. “I’m extremely scared for the safety of our girls and our women in boxing.”
The new transgender policy says minors under the age of 18 “must compete as their birth gender” in weight classes outlined in the rulebook.
However, biological men over the age of 18 can compete in the female category but must first undergo genital reassignment surgery and submit quarterly hormone tests for at least four years following surgery.
Williams told the Daily Signal Podcast that transgender athletes 18 and older are not required to have gone through their transition before puberty, and that is a big problem.
“I mean, already, boys and girls are different. Men and women were born differently. You’re talking about larger hearts, larger lungs, bone density, strength. You’re talking about muscle fiber differences,” the Olympic boxing coach said. “Those are all something we’re born with. Like genetically, … we’re not just talking about going through puberty. But once you go through puberty, I mean, that’s just, it’s a whole other ballgame.”
Williams also recalled once sparring with a teenage boy when she was almost twice his age. She noticed he was going “very light” on her because it’s an unspoken rule that “if you’re going against a woman in the ring, you go light on them.”
“So he was going light on me. He just threw in a body shot and it just hit me perfectly,” she continued. “He didn’t mean to hit me hard, flicked it in there, and gave me a hairline fracture on my rib. I’m 30 years old, he’s 17, and he’s cracking my rib.”
“And so, yeah, I have had that experience. … I understand firsthand what the difference is in that power. And again, that was a teenager,” Williams said.
She also told the podcast the Association of Ringside Physicians had written a paper making it very clear it was unsafe for biological men to fight against women.
“They are not being specific, but they are definitely stating that a man who is competing in the women’s category is dangerous because men and women are built differently. Once they go through puberty, it is just such a stark difference that it is completely unsafe and they recommend not to allow transgender people to compete in the women’s category,” Williams said.
Christy Martin, a former female boxer who’s been inducted into seven Halls of Fame, told Fox News: “I can’t believe that USA Boxing would allow transgender {individuals} to compete. I mean, basically, you’re letting a man fight a woman.”
“Your body, your bone structure, the density, it’s just different. And I think someone’s going to get seriously injured,” Martin said.
Australian professional boxer Ebanie Bridges called the USA Boxing policy dangerous in a post to the social media platform X.
“This is wrong on so many levels. I will never agree to this… it’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and power lifting, but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU not just break a record…however I think it’s wrong in ALL SPORT,” Bridges wrote.
“It ain’t just about the test levels, what about their bone density and a heap of other biological factors,” she added.
