Back in 2010, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) went woke and decided that “trans” athletes could compete where they wanted to. A fair number of biological males took advantage of that rule change to compete against women. Recently, the NCAA reversed course and went back to the old days. Should it now also change the record books?

That is the question George Perry examines in today’s Martin Center article:

He writes:

The NCAA’s policies on transgender athletes, starting in 2010, breached the sex-defined categories. Men’s and women’s sports effectively became “open,” to the pronounced detriment of women’s sports and female athletes. Predictably, this led to male athletes winning women’s championships and setting records in women’s events. More prosaically, but to wider effect, males in female sports have altered the course and history of every competition. Even if a player of the wrong sex finishes last in a race or comes off the bench for the last five minutes of a game, the integrity of that “men’s” or “women’s” competition is fractured because it is no longer sex-defined.

Both pro baseball and pro football confronted a record book problem, namely the exclusion of blacks in bygone years. The NCAA has a different problem, not that some were unfairly excluded, but that some were unfairly included.

What’s the best solution?

Perry answers:

Among the greatest dangers of rewriting history is the likelihood of forgetting it. However, an asterisk could ameliorate this risk. Strip the accolades and place in history from the athletes who should not have been there and give the affected female athletes a nominal compensation for what should have been theirs. The asterisk will direct the reader’s attention to the necessary context, this time explaining, “This is not what happened, but …”