BOARD-ERS ON UNFAIR
Trans, 29, defeats girl in women’s skating event
A 29-year-old transgender woman beat a 13-year-old girl to take home the top prize in a skateboarding contest on the Lower East Side, reigniting the debate over whether new inclusivity pushes create an unfair advantage in women’s sports.
Ricci Tres, of Los Angeles, who was born a man, but now identifies as a woman, won the women’s division of the Boardr Open NYC street skateboarding competition and a $500 prize, with Shiloh Catori, of Florida, coming in second and taking a $250 prize.
Four of the six finalists were under the age of 17, with the youngest being Juri Iikura, 10, who finished fifth. Tres was the oldest contestant.
Tres is 838th in the Boardr Global Rankings, compared to Catori’s 133rd ranking.
Tres attempted to participate in the Women’s Street USA Skateboarding National Championships to aid in her bid to qualify for the Olympics, but was rejected because she had too much testosterone despite taking hormones to suppress it, according to the Daily Mail.
Fathered 3 kids
Tres served four years in the Navy and had three kids with her now ex-wife before becoming a woman, according to the Mail.
The couple still live together and co-parent their children, according to the report.
“I am 28, I have three kids, I’m married, I did my time in the military, I own a company,” she said in an earlier interview, according to the Mail. “I’ve decided that I like being pretty and cute.”
Her victory sparked an outrage on social media among critics, who blasted Boardr Open, sponsored by DC Shoes, for allowing a much older competitor assigned male at birth to face off against biological females — many of them less than half her age.
Skateboarder Taylor Silverman led the chorus of discontent, writing in an Instagram post: “Male wins women’s finals and money at Boardr Open NYC presented by DC today. My story is not unique in skateboarding.”
Lost to ‘men’
Silverman, who has been skateboarding for 11 years, previously complained on social media that she had lost to transgender rivals twice, including at the Redbull Cornerstone competition in May, when she missed out on $5,000 in prize money by coming in second.
“I deserved to place first, be acknowledged for my win, and get paid,” she wrote.
“I reached out to Redbull and was ignored. I am sick of being bullied into silence.”
Silverman’s post from May 17 drew a mixed response, with some users fully supporting her stance, while others accused her of being a sore loser, with one commenter writing: “lol or you could just . . . be better at skating & actually win the already fair contest?”
Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, questioned the age disparity among the Big Apple contestants.
“Why are 28-29 year olds competing against children?” she wondered in a tweet.
In the interview, Tres suggested that she doesn’t feel that she’s fully a woman and that her transition was limited to hormone therapy.
“I know I will never be a woman, because women are miraculous, they have babies and create life and do all that awesome stuff,” she told the Mail. “I’ll never have that ability, but I feel like I am a woman.”