In a women's skateboarding contest in New York City, a transgender person beats a 13-year-old girl.
In New York City, a 29-year-old transgender woman beat a 13-year-old girl to win the top prize in a skateboarding competition. This brought up the question of whether new efforts to be more inclusive give women an unfair advantage in sports.
Ricci Tres, who was born a man but now sees herself as a woman and lives in Los Angeles, won the women's division of the Boardr Open street skateboarding competition and got $500. Shiloh Catori, who is 13 and lives in Florida, came in second and got $250.
Four of the six finalists were younger than 17; Juri Iikura, who came in fifth at age 10, was the youngest. Tres was the oldest contestant, at age 29.
Catori is ranked 133 on the Boardr Global Rankings, while Tres is 838.
Critics were outraged on social media when the transgender athlete won. They criticized Boardr Open for letting a much older competitor who was born male compete against biological females, many of whom were more than half her age.
Skateboarder Taylor Silverman started the chorus of complaints when she wrote on Instagram, "Today at the Boardr Open NYC presented by DC, a man won the women's finals and the money. Skateboarding has many stories like mine.
Silverman has been skateboarding for 11 years. She used to complain on social media that she had lost twice to transgender competitors. One of those times was at the Redbull Cornerstone competition in May, where she came in second and missed out on $5,000 in prize money.
"I should have won first place, been recognized for it, and been paid," she wrote. "I tried to talk to Redbull, but they didn't answer. I'm tired of being forced to keep quiet."
Some people agreed with Silverman's May 17 post, while others accused her of being a sore loser. For example, one user wrote, "lol or you could just... skate better and actually win the already fair contest?"
A spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Christina Pushaw, asked why the contestants on The Big Apple were so different ages.
In a tweet, she asked, "Why are 28-29-year-olds competing against kids?"
The skateboarding contest started a debate about whether male-to-female transgender athletes have an unfair advantage over biological female athletes.
In March, University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas made history by becoming the first transgender woman to win the NCAA Division I swimming championship.
FINA, the world governing body for swimming, told most transgender female athletes last week that they can't compete in any major events, even the Olympics.