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October 4, 2023

Sports’ acquiescence to gender ideology pits men against men, when it’s not pitting men against women. No, men are not being knocked off podiums or national teams because of transgender athletes. We don’t and won’t have our own Riley Gaines.

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But separate categories and prize money for non-binary athletes, like the New York Road Runners and Boston Athletics Association offer, undermine men who fit a certain profile. Men who are not the fastest, but are well faster than most people; and who maintain their basic levels of honesty, integrity, and sportsmanship.

New York Road Runners produces the New York City Marathon and dozens of other races each year. Last year, they expanded their prize purses to pay equal amounts to the top 5-8 men, women, and non-binary NYRR members in their races.

In every race, the top runner in the non-binary division (always a male) finished behind the top runner in the men’s division. Several times, the top female bested the fastest non-binary. Yet all three — top male, top female, top non-binary — received the same amount. At every race, the non-binary “winner” took home more money than faster men and, sometimes, faster women.

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Behind the top 1-2 non-binary runners, the performance curve drops precipitously. Third-place prize money in 13 races ranged from $300 – $750. The average overall finish of the third-place non-binary runner was 451st.

By comparison, the average overall finish of the third-place woman was 43rd.

Had any one of 30 runners switched his NYRR registration from “M” to “X” at the beginning of 2022, he’d have made over $3000 from these races. A handful of other faster-than-me-and-probably-you mid-grade male runners could have pocketed $500 or more by clicking non-binary in his NYRR profile.

Of those 30, only 10 won any prize money running in the men’s division. A few earned about half as much as they could have garnered as non-binary. Others, though, could have ratcheted up their winnings 10x or more — a difference of $10,000 for one runner — had they traded their M for X.

The Boston Marathon requires entrants to run a minimum age- and sex-graded time during a qualifying window for each year’s race, making a Boston Qualifier time (BQ), an annual goal for some runners and a lifetime goal for many more. Many more hopefuls run BQs than there are available spots in the race. A BQ grants you the chance to register, with no guarantee of getting in.

That makes the non-binary standards doubly easy.