Every athlete aims high and looks forward to win a medal to represent themselves and the country at best possible way at the Olympics, but this is probably not the case with BMX Freestyle rider Chelsea Wolfe who has qualified as an alternate to represent the U.S at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.
Wolfe, who identifies herself as a transgender woman, now had to explain what she meant after people got furious over her social media post from March 25, 2020. The post surfaced again on the internet probably in the worst possible time just weeks before the start of the games.
“My goal is to win the Olympics so I can burn a US flag on the podium. This is what they focus on during a pandemic. Hurting trans children,” Wolfe wrote on Facebook on March 25, 2020, along with a link to a PinkNews story about the Trump administration’s stance on transgender girls in female athletics.
The post has been deleted, but of course, someone took a screenshot of the post on Facebook and made this story very fiery in the last days. Apparently, many asked Wolfe to drop off of the Olympics and she came to point where she had to explain the whole story to the nation. This is what she said to FoxNews:
“Anyone who thinks that I don’t care about the United States is sorely mistaken,” Wolfe told Fox News. “One of the reasons why I work so hard to represent the United States in international competition is to show the world that this country has morals and values, that it’s not all of the bad things that we’re known for. I take a stand against fascism because I care about this country and I’m not going to let it fall into the hands of fascists after so many people have fought and sacrificed to prevent fascism from taking hold abroad. As a citizen who wants to be proud of my home country, I’m sure as hell not going to let it take hold here.”
Earlier this month, Wolfe in an Instagram post explained how hard was for her to qualify knowing she is transgender athlete.
“I searched for so long trying to find out if there had ever been a professional trans bmx rider to show me that who I am would be okay and unfortunately I found no one,” Wolfe wrote on Instagram on June 12. “Eventually I started to meet some amazing women who helped me accept that I am a woman just like any other and that I deserve a place to exist in the world just like everyone else.”
Here come the International Olympic Committee specific rules over transgender athletes. According to one very specific rule, transgender athletes must declare their identity as female and not change that declaration for sporting purposes for at least four years. Furthermore, this rule goes even further asking athletes to demonstrate a testosterone level beneath a specific threshold for at least 12 months prior to competing.
The IOC argues that the rules are in place because “the overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.”
It’s up to you to decide the whole situation…
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