US school coach fired after objecting to boys competing in girls’ races

A school sports coach in Oregon has claimed that he was fired for “fighting for females’ right to compete in sports fairly”.

John Parks coached professional athletes, including Olympians, for 20 years before becoming head track and field coach at Lake Oswego High School. But he says he lost his job after asking the Oregon Student Activities Association (OSAA) to stop boys competing against girls.

Currently, the Association allows athletes to compete in the category that reflects their “consistently asserted gender identity”. Parks urged it to instead create an ‘open’ category instead, which those who identify as the opposite sex could enter without impacting female-only competitions.

‘Mockery’

In his letter to the OSAA, he complained that “allowing this travesty to be carried out is making a complete mockery” of races.

Just weeks before Parks was fired, male athlete Aayden Gallagher won the girls’ 200-metre final in the Oregon high school state track and field championships.

The coach had warned the Association that Gallagher was likely to do so, and that in the coming years, he could go on to break state records.

Although the school district confirmed that Parks is no longer one of its employees, it declined to provide details.

Biology

In 2020, a study compared the race times and throwing and jumping distances of US high school boys with female Olympians.

It found that in the 2016 Olypmics, the fastest female athlete in the 100m final would have finished last against teenage boys.

The overall track and field medal count would have resulted in just one gold medal for a female athlete, two silver and two bronze, while the boys would have taken twelve gold, eleven silver and eleven bronze medals.

Concerns

In the UK, girls as young as 14 who play amateur ice hockey are being forced to play against full-grown men who identify as female.

Earlier this month, one father told The Daily Telegraph that his 15-year-old daughter was in an amateur women’s match where a man was penalised for hitting another player in the head. Another set of parents have reportedly stopped their daughter from attending matches with male competitors.

Currently, girls are allowed to play with adult teams from 14 years old. England Ice Hockey and Ice Hockey UK are both reviewing their transgender policies, with the latter expected to be published next month.