Fitness Expert Says Males Have Athletic Advantages in Women’s Sports

Jillian Michaels visits SiriusXM Studios in New York City, on January 06, 2020. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Fitness expert Jillian Michaels, who rose to fame as a trainer on the hit reality series “The Biggest Loser,” has once again weighed in on the contentious debate surrounding whether or not transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

During a recent “Fox & Friends“ segment, Ms. Michaels described data she said ”irrefutably shows” that biological males have a physical advantage over their female counterparts.

“You’ve got two competing goals in sports, right? One is inclusion, which everybody can understand and get on board with. However, the second goal that’s in direct opposition with inclusion, in this instance, is going to be a fair competition,” explained Ms. Michaels, who married fashion designer Deshanna Marie Minuto in 2022.

“If that’s your priority, if your overriding priority is going to be fairness over inclusion, you’ve got to turn to the data, and the data irrefutably shows that biological males are 10 to 30 percent stronger, faster, have better endurance, better aerobic capacity across the board,” she asserted.

Ms. Michaels remarked on the controversial events that unfolded at a West Virginia track meet last week. On April 18, a handful of middle school girls refused to compete against a 13-year-old biological male in a shot-putting competition during the region’s Harrison County Championships. The transgender athlete went on to beat out female competitors by more than three feet, per WV MetroNews.

“Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt noted that the eighth grader in question had been on puberty blockers and taking estrogen since elementary school. However, Ms. Michaels claimed the student still had an athletic edge over the biological girls who had competed, seemingly referencing a 2021 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

“If we defer to the studies … they show that even on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, the decrease in physical performance is, ’trivial.' That’s what the data says,” she noted.

Ms. Michaels continued: “And to give you an example, if you look at a biological male transgender female with grip strength in conjunction with a biological female transgender male—okay, so both of them are on blockers and cross-sex hormones—the transgender female, the biological male’s grip strength was 17 percent greater than the female on testosterone and puberty blockers.”

Biological Males in Women’s Sports

On April 16, just two days before the West Virginia track meet competition, the transgender middle schooler won an appeals court ruling, allowing the eighth grader to compete in the girls’ athletics program.

In a 2–1 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that West Virginia legislation—called the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which was signed into law in 2021 to restrict biological males from playing on girls’ sports teams—violated the student’s rights under Title IX, a federal civil rights law enacted in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in schools that are federally funded.

On April 19, the Biden administration overhauled Title IX, rolling back several changes made while President Trump was in office.

Under the new regulations, which take effect on Aug. 1, sexual discrimination in school programs and activities, which includes forms of sex-based harassment or sexual violence, will now encompass discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

As a result, biological males will now be able to access school programs and spaces designed for biological women and girls, such as locker rooms, scholarships, and sports teams.

“For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive in our nation’s schools free from sex discrimination,” Miguel Cardona, the U.S. Secretary of Education, said in a statement. “These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights.”

‘Sports Is Biological’

Ms. Michaels has previously criticized policies that allow biological males to compete in women’s sports. During a December episode of the “Tomi Lahren Is Fearless“ podcast, the fitness expert raised concerns about the potential for injuries.

“Sports is biological. It just is, and I think that you’re starting to actually see women get hurt,” she said.

“Lia Thomas is six foot one. The percentage of biological females who are six foot one is under 1 percent. Lia Thomas was number 400 when she swam as a male. And number 1 when she swam as a female,” Ms. Michaels stated.

“We’re going to systematically destroy women’s sports,” she declared. “I’m sorry, listen, if you want to be trans, I support you. I want you to have all the same rights that I do.”

“But at the end of the day, someone’s going to get effed here,” she continued. “And if you’re looking at, okay, you’ve got X amount of trans athletes and X amount of women, you’re not going to win this one, right? No one’s coming out unscathed.”