USA Today claims there’s ‘no scientific evidence’ men have athletic advantage over women amid Riley Gaines, Simone Biles trans spat

Armour started the piece saying that Biles is the “GOAT in every sense of the word,” and then added that the gymnast “stood up for transgender athletes” on Friday by “[chastising] Riley Gaines for the relentless verbal abuse she directs at transgender girls and women.”

Biles had called Gaines “truly sick” for wanting only women to play in women’s sports, and pointing out that a Minnesota softball team won championships in part due to a trans pitcher on the team. The gymnast went on to compare Gaines to a man, which she was slammed for on social media by several users.

The USA Today writer kept going along the lines of calling Gaines a “grifter” and that she has become a “MAGA media darling.” After doing so, Armour then claimed, citing herself in another opinion piece, that “there is no scientific evidence that transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women athletes.”

The other opinion penned by Armour in December last year said that it was not appropriate to cite studies comparing men and women in order to make claims about trans athletes and then cited one study which said that “transgender women had lower lung capacity and cardiovascular function,” which Armour claimed would “possibly” put trans-identified male athletes “at a disadvantage.”

The study cited in Armour’s December piece also found that trans-identified male “athletes demonstrated higher absolute handgrip strength than cisgender women, with no difference found relative to fat-free mass or hand size.”

Grip strength tests are often used to screen upper-body strength as well as overall strength, per Physiopedia.