Jillian Michaels addresses trans athlete debate, obesity rates in US
The celebrity fitness trainer joins "Fox & Friends" to discuss West Virginia middle school students protesting a transgender athlete and to give her take on America's obesity crisis.
Celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels spoke out Tuesday in favor of fairness in women's sports after several middle school students in West Virginia staged a protest against one of their competitors, a natural-born male.
Michaels said the data supporting men's strength as superior to women is "irrefutable" during "Fox & Friends," even when accounting for cross-sex hormone therapy.
"You've got two competing goals in sports. … 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," Michaels said on Tuesday.
"And 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% stronger, faster, have better endurance, better aerobic capacity across the board."
At least five middle school girls refused to compete at the Harrison County Championships track meet last week after a transgender female won her shot put competition by three feet, according to the New York Post.
The 13-year-old won the competition despite five girls from a rival school refusing to throw in protest of her participation.
Several middle school girls refused to compete in their shot put competition over a trans athlete's participation. ("Fox & Friends" screengrab)
The protest comes after a federal appeals court ruled that transgender girls could not be barred from competing in West Virginia.
"If we defer to the studies, and I sent several to your producers … they show that even on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, the decrease in physical performance is, quote, trivial. That's what the data says," Michaels said.
"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 – OK, so both of them are on blockers and cross-sex hormones – the transgender female, the biological male's grip strength was 17% greater than the female on testosterone and puberty blockers," she continued.
The eighth-grader reportedly takes puberty blockers and has identified as female for years.
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OutKick host Charly Arnolt praised the girls for refusing to compete, saying their stance is the only way to spark change and protect fairness in women's sports.
"It's really upsetting that these middle school girls have to forfeit their opportunities in order to take a stand," Arnolt said earlier during "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday. "That takes a lot of courage, especially at that age, but they're doing this for the greater good. It's not just for themselves."
"These girls decided, ‘You know what? We want to make sure that people are paying attention.’ This is the only way and the only way for … the government to really start paying attention, and especially that federal appeals court that just struck down the law in West Virginia that bans transgender athletes from competing in female sports," she continued.
"It's the only way they're going to start saying, ‘OK, maybe we are doing something incorrectly here.’"
