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It’s not a simple black or white answer, if handled correctly then there should not be.This is my opinion, I think it is balanced, it is long because it does have a lot of facts in and I can’t speak for all sports because although I am active in a couple of sports - running and triathlon - I actually have no interest in watching or following sports 🤣 anyway.The IOC and Sports bodies around the world have studied this in great detail and followed the science. It is being studied and tweaked so watch this space.If you think trans women who have undertaken hormone treatment are the same physically as cis men then you are mistaken, I urge everyone to look at the science and the facts not the ignorant hate fuelled Daily Mail or Fox News.Women are not delicate creatures who put aside thoughts of crocheting and kittens to have a dabble in sports and need to be protected. Can a man run and WIN ultra marathons whilst feeding baby or express milk during the race as well?Jasmine Paris expressing milk whilst racing in the 286 mile Spine Race which she won, not first women she won, smashing the record by 12 hours with second place person (a man) coming in several hours behind.Not transgender..Men have more testosterone than women but it is not as simple as saying a high free testosterone level makes you stronger or faster, you need the right combination of receptors to convert it into more powerful forms. Whether male or female, if you have that combination of high free testosterone and the right receptors you have the potential to achieve elite performance. The hormone regime for transgender women uses an anti androgen that blocks testosterone production to the levels typically found in women and more importantly the conversion to DHT, oestrogen, usually estradiol, is used to boost oestrogen levels and also acts to reduce testosterone levels.If a transgender woman has surgery then her testosterone output is negligible, by that I mean the same as (or even less than) a post-menopausal woman as the only testosterone produced is from the adrenal glands. Female athletes who have not started menopause produce testosterone from both their adrenal glands and their ovaries.There are two types of muscle; fast twitch which give explosive power and strength and slow twitch which is used for endurance. Within 3–12 months of starting the MTF hormone regimen, most fast twitch muscles will start to atrophy ie waste away, anecdotally about 10–15 lbs of fast twitch muscle loss is not uncommon in those who are untrained, much more for those who are trained, certainly after 2–3 years the muscle composition will be virtually if not exactly the same as cis women. A transgender women can’t simply ‘pump iron’ or train to regain her lost muscle because she has the hormonal makeup of a cis woman.Transgender women see a drop in red blood count because of the fall in T, so no matter how big your heart or lungs the blood is carrying less oxygen to support less muscles, the ability to supply oxygen to the muscles is determined by a measure called VO2 Max, the difference between trained male and female athletes can be less than 10%. The drop in T also depresses the metabolism so that the body’s efficiency in converting glycogen and carbs into energy is reduced.I have seen this article in the Guardian cited by those who say transgender women ’retain their physical advantage’ .. Trans women retain 12% edge in tests two years after transitioning, study finds, well I say cited, the article is thrown out there as if to say ‘see a newspaper says so, it must be right’. The article is quite lazy reporting, as indeed was the study which was published in the BMJEffect of gender affirming hormones on athletic performance in transwomen and transmen: implications for sporting organisations and legislatorsObjective To examine the effect of gender affirming hormones on athletic performance among transwomen and transmen. Methods We reviewed fitness test results and medical records of 29 transmen and 46 transwomen who started gender affirming hormones while in the United States Air Force. We compared pre- and post-hormone fitness test results of the transwomen and transmen with the average performance of all women and men under the age of 30 in the Air Force between 2004 and 2014. We also measured the rate of hormone associated changes in body composition and athletic performance. Results Participants were 26.2 years old (SD 5.5). Prior to gender affirming hormones, transwomen performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in 1 min and ran 1.5 miles 21% faster than their female counterparts. After 2 years of taking feminising hormones, the push-up and sit-up differences disappeared but transwomen were still 12% faster. Prior to gender affirming hormones, transmen performed 43% fewer push-ups and ran 1.5 miles 15% slower than their male counterparts. After 1 year of taking masculinising hormones, there was no longer a difference in push-ups or run times, and the number of sit-ups performed in 1 min by transmen exceeded the average performance of their male counterparts. Summary The 15–31% athletic advantage that transwomen displayed over their female counterparts prior to starting gender affirming hormones declined with feminising therapy. However, transwomen still had a 9% faster mean run speed after the 1 year period of testosterone suppression that is recommended by World Athletics for inclusion in women’s events.https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/11/06/bjsports-2020-102329The report was by three paediatricians, yes that’s right paediatricians- not sports medicine specialists!46 trans women in the US Air Force had their results of their annual fitness tests reviewed before they started HRT and then 2 years later. The annual fitness test consisted of push-ups, sit-ups and a 1.5 mile runThe study was conducted during the anti-trans Trump administration with two of the three paediatricians being employed by the US Air Force and the US Department.The study was a paper review of results from 2004–2014.The report concluded that after two years the effects of HRT resulted in the trans women losing any strength advantage and achieved parity with the cis women in the push-ups and sit-ups.The report boldly stated that because, after two year, the trans women were 9% faster in the run then the conclusions were that:The trans women had a ‘retained’ advantageThe IOC and other sports bodies should rethink their transgender policiesNot wanting to cough up £30 for the report I’m going to work backwards on the run times because there is such an obvious flaw if you are familiar with the Age Grading Calculator tool, you can churn the numbers yourself.The run distance is 1.5 miles.The average age was 26Using the Age Grade calculator a time of 14 mins would hit the female 50th percentileThe pre-transition trans women were 21% faster which would equate to a run time of 11mins 06sA run time of 11mins 06s would give a male Age Grade of 55.4% - this is important as they had not started HRT and cannot be compared using the female Age Grade at this pointAfter 2 years on HRT their run time was 9% faster than the average female time (14 mins) or 12 mins 45s this would give a female Age Grade of 54.75%A proper analysis of this data would conclude that:Before transition the trans women were faster than the average male times with an Age Grade of 55.4%After 2 years HRT, the trans women were faster than the average female time with an Age Grade of 54.75%Their Age Grade was consistent from transition from male Age Grade to female Age Grade.Because the Age Grade was consistent to less than 1 point they had not ‘retained’ an advantage.It is ludicrous to extrapolate the data from such a small sample of untrained athletes into the realm of elite athletes.The proper analysis of the data by way of the Age Grade comparison was exactly how the IOC arrived at their transgender athletes policy and was the subject of a study of transgender athletes before, during and after transition by Joanna Harper a Medical Physicist and advisor to the IOCHarper observed of one of the test subjects, Lauren:Within 6 weeks after she started estrogen injections, Lauren's peak oxygen consumption rate—a measure of fitness—fell by 17%, the researchers reported at the American College of Sports Medicine's meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June. "She lost a fair bit of performance really quickly," Angadi says. But Lauren's fitness probably hasn't stabilized yet, he notes, because she only recently started to take a testosterone blocker. Angadi's team will test Lauren into 2019, when she runs the Boston Marathon. Charissa, a triathlete living in Colorado who is taking part in a similar study, lost roughly 15% of her aerobic capacity in 9 months since beginning hormone therapy, Harper reported in March at a British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine conference held in Doncaster, U.K.Harper also calculated each subject's age grade, a common metric in track and field and distance running that reflects an athlete's performance compared with the fastest known time by someone of the same age and sex. Harper showed that the athletes' age grades before and after hormone therapy remained nearly the same. That is, the women were as competitive with their age- and sex-matched peers as they had been when competing against men. They weren't, in other words, likely to dominate women's races. "No one had previously looked at actual performance of transgender athletes pre- and post-transition."So significant changes - still not enough to eradicate an unfair advantage?I think we need to look at two levels- elite and the rest.The elite - Elite sports are not fair, let’s get that clear. Is it fair that countries with budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars should have to compete against GB, US, Australian, Chinese, Russian teams with multi million dollar budgets? How dare a podium placing elite female athlete say they compete on a level playing field when they are being paid huge amounts to race and have access to trainers, nutritionists, psychologists, physiotherapists and cutting edge equipment unless all competitors have the same.Cheating by cis men and cis women has been in existence for decades and is ongoing. There is a constant battle between the officials and violators who use sophisticated techniques to mask their drug use if samples are taken. Some athletes who have spoken out against drug cheats have turned out to be drug cheats themselves, Lance Armstrong anyone? To be balanced with Armstrong, 90% of the pro cyclists of that time were doping as they were able to mask their abuse and be undetected. Samples from events can be tested up to ten years now leading to restrospective sanctions being imposed.Abuse of T in male athletes creates a reaction detectable in urine samples because to create an advantage in bodies awash with T we are talking about huge doses. Abuse by women does not create that same reaction and more sophisticated tests are required, moreover because of the lower T levels in women they only need a small dose to give a significant advantage relative to other women; surprise surprise, many female elite athletes have high testosterone levels.Testosterone levels in men vary between 9.2 - 31.8 nmol/l and in women 0.7 - 2.8 nmol/lThe issue of transgender women competing has created a flurry of studies. Initially the IOC stipulated that transgender women had to be post operative as with removal of the testicles T level production from the adrenal glands only is about 0.7 nmol/l, the current stance is that transgender women should have T levels of no more than 5 nmol/l. If you look at the transgender policy for most sports they have the same/similar requirements, I’ve looked at two in detail that I’m involved with. Whilst at first glance this may favour transgender women, studies have shown that there are women who produce in excess of that and indeed overlap T production in elite athletes. This prompted discussion as to whether testosterone levels in women should also be limited, to 5 nmol/l but that was found to contrary to human rights.Blood samples were obtained from 813 volunteer elite athletes from a cross-section of 15 sporting categories. An endocrine profile was measured on a sub-set of 693. Samples were drawn within two hours of an event at a major national or international competition. Demographics and hormone profiles were obtained on 454 male and 239 female elite athletes. Hormone profiles showed significant differences in 19 of the 24 measured variables between sexes and between all of the 15 sporting disciplines in men and 11 out of 24 in women. 16.5% of men had low testosterone levels while 13.7% of women had high levels with complete overlap between the sexes.Endocrine Profiles in 693 Elite Athletes in the Post-Competition Setting.March 2014 : Clinical Endocrinology 81(2): DOI 10.1111/cen.12445When a transgender cyclist, McKinnon, won the World Cycling Championship in California, bronze medalist Wagner-Assali branded the race “unfair” even though she’d beaten McKinnon in 10 of 12 previous events. The defending champion Fader, had beaten McKinnon several times, was faster yet pulled out of the race saying it was unfair, in all probability Fader would have won convincingly. For the record, I don’t like McKinnon, she has an aggressive and abrasive attitude, certainly not any type of role model.There have been post operative transgender women for 90 years, every year there are thousands if not tens of thousands of National and International events amongst all sports, how many National and World records have been held by transgender women? Critics can only pick out a handful out of the literally thousands of championships across every sport? How many International or National podium places have been won by transgender women? How many Olympic podium places have been won by transgender women? We’ll answer that one later …The amateur- let’s face it, 99.999% of us are not even going to get to elite level, it’s the local 5k and 10k races etc where transgender women and cis women will compete and it is at the non-elite level where problems may occur. here are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of amateur sports events every year, do you not think that if a transgender woman even came third in the Fordwich 5k then Sharon Davies, JK Rowling, the Daily Mail or Fox News would be apoplectic with rage and screaming about the end of women’s sports? In the 17 year period since the IOC and Sports governing bodies set out the rules for transgender participation, how many amateur sports events including women have taken place?Let’s just take running as an example of one of the dozens of sports, I will focus on the USA as there are some reasonable stats available. In the USA there are an average of 30,000 running events each year with 2017 having 18.3 million entries, U.S. Running Trends Report with entrants from women rising from 40% of entries in 2003 to the current 50% The State of Running 2019So if 9 million women raced in the USA last year and given that 0.5% of the population is transgender, assuming a similar proportion of transgender women participated that would give 45,000 trans women, let’s say that participation by trans women is 200 times less than cis women that would give 225; if Davies, Rowling, Radcliffe etc are to be believed 225 transgender women would have been smashing the competition at each event because of their ‘retained advantage’ - did they?In the 17 years of transgender women participating have the number of women taking part gone down? Surely the onslaught of transgender women and their ‘unfair, retained advantage’ has shredded the morale of women in sport .. again the facts disprove this hysterical ranting .. participation by women in running has increased ..Again in the 17 years that transgender athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics, the hysterical mouthpieces have stated quite categorically that transgender women will destroy women’s sports and take all the medals. During this period 50,000 athletes have taken part in the Olympics, given that 0.5% of the population you might expect that this would translate to 250 transgender athletes .. no? .. 100? .. 10? …. zero, not one, none .. no transgender woman has even reached Olympic trial stage. But the hysterical mouthpieces are not ones to let facts interfere with their litany of unsubstantiated lies.Now as regards the US college system which an outsider would class as a semi/professional - a financial reward in terms of college sponsorship, that to me is pretty substantial 🤔 Anyway, the American college sports system has approximately 1,100 colleges whose sporting activities are governed by the NCAA, there are up to 200 transgender girls registered of the 216,000 women registered with the NCAA, of those only two have had any measure of success, CeCé Telfer and June Eastwood.Records of Telfer's performances prior to starting hormone therapy showed a loss in physical strength, muscle mass, and weight.Montana’s head track coach, Brian Schweyen, has noticed what he called a “drastic change” and drop-off in speed for Eastwood from her prior racing days, too, “June’s times, intervals, and training in workouts don’t compare” to her previous stats, he says.Trans Girls on Girls’ Sports Teams- Scientific AmericanNow this is where I play Devil’s advocate and inject my own thoughts. At the amateur level, there is absolutely no doubt a man could claim to be transgender, not be in a hormone regime and compete; in my opinion that is clearly unfair, it is not in the spirit of sport but there are people who cheat at grass root events, they dope, have illegal equipment, they race in a different age group claiming to be older than they actually are, they even dodge out of a marathon, jump in a car and get out near the finish line - that I saw myself during a marathon in 1983!Self identification is not carte blanche to cheat, if a transgender woman is not in a hormone regime she should not compete in the women’s category, I also believe that even if she is on a hormone treatment then she should wait at least a year before doing so. It could be argued ‘it’s only a local 5k, she is not a serious runner and will just be hidden amongst the rest, where’s the harm?’ Haters will still seize on this. I have read of transgender women who just love to race and because they don’t want any upset even if they are post op, even if their T levels allow them to compete in the Olympics, if they podium will step aside and let the next placed woman take the position, sporting? fair? unfair on the transgender woman?I started running properly in 2007 (aged 50) and virtually every training run and race since 2010 has been logged using a GPS watch, my times showed a gradual improvement until 2016 (aged 59), I even beat members of armed forces teams in several Half Ironmans 2012–2016. There is a metric runners use to gauge how they are performing relative to others in their sex and age group called ‘Age Grade’, my calculation showed I was about 68%, ie I was faster than 68% of males of my age competing in races. My times gradually started to slow from my peak at 2016 and in 2020 averaged about 65%. Since I started HRT 7 months ago my times have shown quite a marked slowing by 10–15%, my Male Age Grade is now 57% but my Female Age Grade calculation is 67% which ties in with Harper’s research mentioned above. My heart rate has remained unchanged which shows I am putting in the same effort but running slower, I knew it would happen but didn’t think it would be this quick.My last race (male category) was after 4 months HRT, it was only a 10 mile trail race and I was sh*t, I was last in my age group (60–64), even an 80 yo beat me. My first planned event in the women’s category will probably be in February 2022 by which time I would have been on HRT for 17 months, most of the important changes should well under way by then and again depending on my T level - pretty much in line with the Olympics and the elite requirements for most sports. I will also be possibly post surgery, my T levels would be the same as or even below that of a post menopausal woman - a huge threat to cis women. I earnestly want transgender women to be included and for me inclusivity is a two way street, I want to be regarded as a woman and to compete with other women but only when my musculoskeletal and biochemistry is comparable.Summary.. at elite levels I think there is so much cheating going on because of the high money stakes that this is something for the scientists to get a good grip on not everyone with a vested interest, a quarter of the facts and a full opinion spouting off.For transgender women, testosterone is a poison. It has ruined their bodies and given features that they do not want. We don’t want big muscly shoulders, arms and backs, we don’t want thick skin with big pores, we don’t want horrible hairy arms and legs, we don’t want thinning receding hair, we don’t want nasty smelly sweat.I believe that most transgender women will (should) certainly be concentrating on their transition in the first twelve months and that racing would take a back seat. The body and chemistry changes after 12–18 months should mitigate any advantage the transgender woman may have had and she should then be allowed to resume racing and I believe most of us will self police - people who do not compete really don’t get that. Certainly if she has had an orchidectomy/full surgery she will have been on HRT for at least 12 months. Could there be a male athlete desperate enough to say they are trans but tweak and cheat on the T levels? Yes. Sports do have cheats, those cheats are overwhelmingly and disproportionately cis women and cis men, every year there are doping scandals amongst cis women and cis men but it is the transgender athlete who would be under the spotlight.

If a MTF transgender person still has male strength and speed then it is because they are not on a hormone regimen of anti-androgens to block the formation of testosterone and it’s most potent form, DHT. They will also be taking oestrogen which apart from creating the female secondary characteristics also acts as a testosterone blocker. So if such a person was not on an HRT regimen then it would not be fair, if everyone said it was cool however …Now the science bit …The IOC and Sports bodies around the world have studied this in great detail and followed the science. It is being studied and tweaked so watch this space.If you think trans women who have undertaken hormone treatment are the same physically as cis men then you are mistaken, I urge everyone to look at the science and the facts not the ignorant hate fuelled Daily Mail or Fox News.Women are not delicate creatures who put aside thoughts of crocheting and kittens to have a dabble in sports and need to be protected. Can a man run and WIN ultra marathons whilst feeding baby or express milk during the race as well?Jasmine Paris expressing milk whilst racing in the 286 mile Spine Race which she won, not first women she won, smashing the record by 12 hours with second place person (a man) coming in several hours behind.Not transgender..Men have more testosterone than women but it is not as simple as saying a high free testosterone level makes you stronger or faster, you need the right combination of receptors to convert it into more powerful forms. Whether male or female, if you have that combination of high free testosterone and the right receptors you have the potential to achieve elite performance. The hormone regime for transgender women uses an anti androgen that blocks testosterone production to the levels typically found in women and more importantly the conversion to DHT, oestrogen, usually estradiol, is used to boost oestrogen levels and also acts to reduce testosterone levels.If a transgender woman has surgery then her testosterone output is negligible, by that I mean the same as (or even less than) a post-menopausal woman as the only testosterone produced is from the adrenal glands. Female athletes who have not started menopause produce testosterone from both their adrenal glands and their ovaries.There are two types of muscle; fast twitch which give explosive power and strength and slow twitch which is used for endurance. Within 3–12 months of starting the MTF hormone regimen, most fast twitch muscles will start to atrophy ie waste away, anecdotally about 10–15 lbs of fast twitch muscle loss is not uncommon in those who are untrained, much more for those who are trained, certainly after 2–3 years the muscle composition will be virtually if not exactly the same as cis women. A transgender women can’t simply ‘pump iron’ or train to regain her lost muscle because she has the hormonal makeup of a cis woman.Transgender women see a drop in red blood count because of the fall in T, so no matter how big your heart or lungs the blood is carrying less oxygen to support less muscles, the ability to supply oxygen to the muscles is determined by a measure called VO2 Max, the difference between trained male and female athletes can be less than 10%. The drop in T also depresses the metabolism so that the body’s efficiency in converting glycogen and carbs into energy is reduced.I bet someone will refer to this report in their answer .. Trans women retain 12% edge in tests two years after transitioning, study finds, The article is quite lazy reporting, as indeed was the study which was published in the BMJEffect of gender affirming hormones on athletic performance in transwomen and transmen: implications for sporting organisations and legislatorsObjective To examine the effect of gender affirming hormones on athletic performance among transwomen and transmen. Methods We reviewed fitness test results and medical records of 29 transmen and 46 transwomen who started gender affirming hormones while in the United States Air Force. We compared pre- and post-hormone fitness test results of the transwomen and transmen with the average performance of all women and men under the age of 30 in the Air Force between 2004 and 2014. We also measured the rate of hormone associated changes in body composition and athletic performance. Results Participants were 26.2 years old (SD 5.5). Prior to gender affirming hormones, transwomen performed 31% more push-ups and 15% more sit-ups in 1 min and ran 1.5 miles 21% faster than their female counterparts. After 2 years of taking feminising hormones, the push-up and sit-up differences disappeared but transwomen were still 12% faster. Prior to gender affirming hormones, transmen performed 43% fewer push-ups and ran 1.5 miles 15% slower than their male counterparts. After 1 year of taking masculinising hormones, there was no longer a difference in push-ups or run times, and the number of sit-ups performed in 1 min by transmen exceeded the average performance of their male counterparts. Summary The 15–31% athletic advantage that transwomen displayed over their female counterparts prior to starting gender affirming hormones declined with feminising therapy. However, transwomen still had a 9% faster mean run speed after the 1 year period of testosterone suppression that is recommended by World Athletics for inclusion in women’s events.https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2020/11/06/bjsports-2020-102329The report was by three paediatricians, yes that’s right paediatricians- not sports medicine specialists!46 trans women in the US Air Force had their results of their annual fitness tests reviewed before they started HRT and then 2 years later. The annual fitness test consisted of push-ups, sit-ups and a 1.5 mile runThe study was conducted during the anti-trans Trump administration with two of the three paediatricians being employed by the US Air Force and the US Department.The study was a paper review of results from 2004–2014.The report concluded that after two years the effects of HRT resulted in the trans women losing any strength advantage and achieved parity with the cis women in the push-ups and sit-ups.The report boldly stated that because, after two year, the trans women were 9% faster in the run then the conclusions were that:The trans women had a ‘retained’ advantageThe IOC and other sports bodies should rethink their transgender policiesNot wanting to cough up £30 for the report I’m going to work backwards on the run times because there is such an obvious flaw if you are familiar with the Age Grading Calculator tool, you can churn the numbers yourself.The run distance is 1.5 miles.The average age was 26Using the Age Grade calculator a time of 14 mins would hit the female 50th percentileThe pre-transition trans women were 21% faster which would equate to a run time of 11mins 06sA run time of 11mins 06s would give a male Age Grade of 55.4% - this is important as they had not started HRT and cannot be compared using the female Age Grade at this pointAfter 2 years on HRT their run time was 9% faster than the average female time (14 mins) or 12 mins 45s this would give a female Age Grade of 54.75%A proper analysis of this data would conclude that:Before transition the trans women were faster than the average male times with an Age Grade of 55.4%After 2 years HRT, the trans women were faster than the average female time with an Age Grade of 54.75%Their Age Grade was consistent from transition from male Age Grade to female Age Grade.Because the Age Grade was consistent to less than 1 point they had not ‘retained’ an advantage.It is ludicrous to extrapolate the data from such a small sample of untrained athletes into the realm of elite athletes.The proper analysis of the data by way of the Age Grade comparison was exactly how the IOC arrived at their transgender athletes policy and was the subject of a study of transgender athletes before, during and after transition by Joanna Harper a Medical Physicist and advisor to the IOCHarper observed of one of the test subjects, Lauren:Within 6 weeks after she started estrogen injections, Lauren's peak oxygen consumption rate—a measure of fitness—fell by 17%, the researchers reported at the American College of Sports Medicine's meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in June. "She lost a fair bit of performance really quickly," Angadi says. But Lauren's fitness probably hasn't stabilized yet, he notes, because she only recently started to take a testosterone blocker. Angadi's team will test Lauren into 2019, when she runs the Boston Marathon. Charissa, a triathlete living in Colorado who is taking part in a similar study, lost roughly 15% of her aerobic capacity in 9 months since beginning hormone therapy, Harper reported in March at a British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine conference held in Doncaster, U.K.Harper also calculated each subject's age grade, a common metric in track and field and distance running that reflects an athlete's performance compared with the fastest known time by someone of the same age and sex. Harper showed that the athletes' age grades before and after hormone therapy remained nearly the same. That is, the women were as competitive with their age- and sex-matched peers as they had been when competing against men. They weren't, in other words, likely to dominate women's races. "No one had previously looked at actual performance of transgender athletes pre- and post-transition."So significant changes - still not enough to eradicate an unfair advantage?I think we need to look at two levels- elite and the rest.The elite - Elite sports are not fair, let’s get that clear. Is it fair that countries with budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars should have to compete against GB, US, Australian, Chinese, Russian teams with multi million dollar budgets? How dare a podium placing elite female athlete say they compete on a level playing field when they are being paid huge amounts to race and have access to trainers, nutritionists, psychologists, physiotherapists and cutting edge equipment unless all competitors have the same.Cheating by cis men and cis women has been in existence for decades and is ongoing. There is a constant battle between the officials and violators who use sophisticated techniques to mask their drug use if samples are taken. Some athletes who have spoken out against drug cheats have turned out to be drug cheats themselves, Lance Armstrong anyone? To be balanced with Armstrong, 90% of the pro cyclists of that time were doping as they were able to mask their abuse and be undetected. Samples from events can be tested up to ten years now leading to restrospective sanctions being imposed.Abuse of T in male athletes creates a reaction detectable in urine samples because to create an advantage in bodies awash with T we are talking about huge doses. Abuse by women does not create that same reaction and more sophisticated tests are required, moreover because of the lower T levels in women they only need a small dose to give a significant advantage relative to other women; surprise surprise, many female elite athletes have high testosterone levels.Testosterone levels in men vary between 9.2 - 31.8 nmol/l and in women 0.7 - 2.8 nmol/lThe issue of transgender women competing has created a flurry of studies. Initially the IOC stipulated that transgender women had to be post operative as with removal of the testicles T level production from the adrenal glands only is about 0.7 nmol/l, the current stance is that transgender women should have T levels of no more than 5 nmol/l. If you look at the transgender policy for most sports they have the same/similar requirements, I’ve looked at two in detail that I’m involved with. Whilst at first glance this may favour transgender women, studies have shown that there are women who produce in excess of that and indeed overlap T production in elite athletes. This prompted discussion as to whether testosterone levels in women should also be limited, to 5 nmol/l but that was found to contrary to human rights.Blood samples were obtained from 813 volunteer elite athletes from a cross-section of 15 sporting categories. An endocrine profile was measured on a sub-set of 693. Samples were drawn within two hours of an event at a major national or international competition. Demographics and hormone profiles were obtained on 454 male and 239 female elite athletes. Hormone profiles showed significant differences in 19 of the 24 measured variables between sexes and between all of the 15 sporting disciplines in men and 11 out of 24 in women. 16.5% of men had low testosterone levels while 13.7% of women had high levels with complete overlap between the sexes.Endocrine Profiles in 693 Elite Athletes in the Post-Competition Setting.March 2014 : Clinical Endocrinology 81(2): DOI 10.1111/cen.12445When a transgender cyclist, McKinnon, won the World Cycling Championship in California, bronze medalist Wagner-Assali branded the race “unfair” even though she’d beaten McKinnon in 10 of 12 previous events. The defending champion Fader, had beaten McKinnon several times, was faster yet pulled out of the race saying it was unfair, in all probability Fader would have won convincingly. For the record, I don’t like McKinnon, she has an aggressive and abrasive attitude, certainly not any type of role model.There have been post operative transgender women for 90 years, every year there are thousands if not tens of thousands of National and International events amongst all sports, how many National and World records have been held by transgender women? Critics can only pick out a handful out of the literally thousands of championships across every sport? How many International or National podium places have been won by transgender women? How many Olympic podium places have been won by transgender women? We’ll answer that one later …The amateur- let’s face it, 99.999% of us are not even going to get to elite level, it’s the local 5k and 10k races etc where transgender women and cis women will compete and it is at the non-elite level where problems may occur. here are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of amateur sports events every year, do you not think that if a transgender woman even came third in the Fordwich 5k then Sharon Davies, JK Rowling, the Daily Mail or Fox News would be apoplectic with rage and screaming about the end of women’s sports? In the 17 year period since the IOC and Sports governing bodies set out the rules for transgender participation, how many amateur sports events including women have taken place?Let’s just take running as an example of one of the dozens of sports, I will focus on the USA as there are some reasonable stats available. In the USA there are an average of 30,000 running events each year with 2017 having 18.3 million entries, U.S. Running Trends Report with entrants from women rising from 40% of entries in 2003 to the current 50% The State of Running 2019So if 9 million women raced in the USA last year and given that 0.5% of the population is transgender, assuming a similar proportion of transgender women participated that would give 45,000 trans women, let’s say that participation by trans women is 200 times less than cis women that would give 225; if Davies, Rowling, Radcliffe etc are to be believed 225 transgender women would have been smashing the competition at each event because of their ‘retained advantage’ - did they?In the 17 years of transgender women participating have the number of women taking part gone down? Surely the onslaught of transgender women and their ‘unfair, retained advantage’ has shredded the morale of women in sport .. again the facts disprove this hysterical ranting .. participation by women in running has increased ..Again in the 17 years that transgender athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics, the hysterical mouthpieces have stated quite categorically that transgender women will destroy women’s sports and take all the medals. During this period 50,000 athletes have taken part in the Olympics, given that 0.5% of the population you might expect that this would translate to 250 transgender athletes .. no? .. 100? .. 10? …. zero, not one, none .. no transgender woman has even reached Olympic trial stage. But the hysterical mouthpieces are not ones to let facts interfere with their litany of unsubstantiated lies.Now as regards the US college system which an outsider would class as a semi/professional - a financial reward in terms of college sponsorship, that to me is pretty substantial 🤔 Anyway, the American college sports system has approximately 1,100 colleges whose sporting activities are governed by the NCAA, there are up to 200 transgender girls registered of the 216,000 women registered with the NCAA, of those only two have had any measure of success, CeCé Telfer and June Eastwood.Records of Telfer's performances prior to starting hormone therapy showed a loss in physical strength, muscle mass, and weight.Montana’s head track coach, Brian Schweyen, has noticed what he called a “drastic change” and drop-off in speed for Eastwood from her prior racing days, too, “June’s times, intervals, and training in workouts don’t compare” to her previous stats, he says.Trans Girls Belong on Girls’ Sports TeamsScientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trans-girls-belong-on-girls-sports-teams/.@SRuhle asks WV Gov. Justice about signing a bill restricting transgender athletes.Ruhle: "Can you give me one example of a transgender child trying to get an unfair advantage? Just one in your state, you signed a bill about it."Justice: "No, I can't really tell you one." pic.twitter.com/RmOyWBUuZY— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 30, 2021Now this is where I play Devil’s advocate and inject my own thoughts. At the amateur level, there is absolutely no doubt a man could claim to be transgender, not be in a hormone regime and compete; in my opinion that is clearly unfair, it is not in the spirit of sport but there are people who cheat at grass root events, they dope, have illegal equipment, they race in a different age group claiming to be older than they actually are, they even dodge out of a marathon, jump in a car and get out near the finish line - that I saw myself during a marathon in 1983!Self identification is not carte blanche to cheat, if a transgender woman is not in a hormone regime she should not compete in the women’s category, I also believe that even if she is on a hormone treatment then she should wait at least a year before doing so. It could be argued ‘it’s only a local 5k, she is not a serious runner and will just be hidden amongst the rest, where’s the harm?’ Haters will still seize on this. I have read of transgender women who just love to race and because they don’t want any upset even if they are post op, even if their T levels allow them to compete in the Olympics, if they podium will step aside and let the next placed woman take the position, sporting? fair? unfair on the transgender woman?I started running properly in 2007 (aged 50) and virtually every training run and race since 2010 has been logged using a GPS watch, my times showed a gradual improvement until 2016 (aged 59), I even beat members of armed forces teams in several Half Ironmans 2012–2016. There is a metric runners use to gauge how they are performing relative to others in their sex and age group called ‘Age Grade’, my calculation showed I was about 68%, ie I was faster than 68% of males of my age competing in races. My times gradually started to slow from my peak at 2016 and in 2020 averaged about 65%. Since I started HRT 7 months ago my times have shown quite a marked slowing by 10–15%, my Male Age Grade is now 57% but my Female Age Grade calculation is 67% which ties in with Harper’s research mentioned above. My heart rate has remained unchanged which shows I am putting in the same effort but running slower, I knew it would happen but didn’t think it would be this quick.My last race (male category) was after only 2 months HRT, it was only a 10 mile trail race and I was sh*t, I was last in my age group (60–64), even an 80 yo beat me. My first planned event in the women’s category will probably be in February 2022 by which time I would have been on HRT for 17 months, most of the important changes should well under way by then and again depending on my T level - pretty much in line with the Olympics and the elite requirements for most sports. I will also be possibly post surgery, my T levels would be the same as or even below that of a post menopausal woman - a huge threat to cis women. I earnestly want transgender women to be included and for me inclusivity is a two way street, I want to be regarded as a woman and to compete with other women but only when my musculoskeletal and biochemistry is comparable.Summary.. at elite levels I think there is so much cheating going on because of the high money stakes that this is something for the scientists to get a good grip on not everyone with a vested interest, a quarter of the facts and a full opinion spouting off.For transgender women, testosterone is a poison. It has ruined their bodies and given features that they do not want. We don’t want big muscly shoulders, arms and backs, we don’t want thick skin with big pores, we don’t want horrible hairy arms and legs, we don’t want thinning receding hair, we don’t want nasty smelly sweat.I believe that most transgender women will (should) certainly be concentrating on their transition in the first twelve months and that racing would take a back seat. The body and chemistry changes after 12–18 months should mitigate any advantage the transgender woman may have had and she should then be allowed to resume racing and I believe most of us will self police - people who do not compete really don’t get that. Certainly if she has had an orchidectomy/full surgery she will have been on HRT for at least 12 months. Could there be a male athlete desperate enough to say they are trans but tweak and cheat on the T levels? Yes. Sports do have cheats, those cheats are overwhelmingly and disproportionately cis women and cis men, every year there are doping scandals amongst cis women and cis men but it is the transgender athlete who would be under the spotlight.

Yes, indeed they can. Many novels have “famous first lines”.If I were to hear, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”, I would know immediately it was the first line in - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens or if I were to hear, “"When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." I would know it is the first line in one of my favorite novels - Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. There are many more as you can see from the list below. This is just a sampling as literature is rife with memorable first lines.Here is a list from American Book Review which gives a list of 100 famous first lines:100 Best First Lines from Novels1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune , must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)11. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard. —Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)12. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. —Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)13. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. —Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Breon Mitchell)14. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. —Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler (1979; trans. William Weaver)15. The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. —Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938)16. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. —J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)17. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. —James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)18. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)19. I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost:—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me. —Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1759–1767)20. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. —Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)21. Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. —James Joyce, Ulysses (1922)22. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. —Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)23. One summer afternoon Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary. —Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)24. It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. —Paul Auster, City of Glass (1985)25. Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. —William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)26. 124 was spiteful. —Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)27. Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605; trans. Edith Grossman)28. Mother died today. —Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942; trans. Stuart Gilbert)29. Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. —Ha Jin, Waiting (1999)30. The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel . —William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)31. I am a sick man . . . I am a spiteful man. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864; trans. Michael R. Katz)32. Where now? Who now? When now? —Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable (1953; trans. Patrick Bowles)33. Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. "Stop!" cried the groaning old man at last, "Stop! I did not drag my father beyond this tree." —Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans (1925)34. In a sense, I am Jacob Horner. —John Barth, The End of the Road (1958)35. It was like so, but wasn't. —Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2 (1995)36. —Money . . . in a voice that rustled. —William Gaddis, J R (1975)37. Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. —Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925)38. All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)39. They shoot the white girl first. —Toni Morrison, Paradise (1998)40. For a long time, I went to bed early. —Marcel Proust, Swann's Way (1913; trans. Lydia Davis)41. The moment one learns English, complications set in. —Felipe Alfau, Chromos (1990)42. Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature. —Anita Brookner, The Debut (1981)43. I was the shadow of the waxwing slain / By the false azure in the windowpane ; —Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962)44. Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. —Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)45. I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. —Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911)46. Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation. —Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (1974)47. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. —C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)48. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (1952)49. It was the day my grandmother exploded. —Iain M. Banks, The Crow Road (1992)50. I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. —Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)51. Elmer Gantry was drunk. —Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry (1927)52. We started dying before the snow, and like the snow, we continued to fall. —Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988)53. It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)54. A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. —Graham Greene, The End of the Affair (1951)55. Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes' chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind, my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression. —Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939)56. I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho' not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named Robinson, a very good Family in that Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call our selves, and write our Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call'd me. —Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719)57. In the beginning, sometimes I left messages in the street. —David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress (1988)58. Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. —George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872)59. It was love at first sight. —Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)60. What if this young woman, who writes such bad poems, in competition with her husband, whose poems are equally bad, should stretch her remarkably long and well-made legs out before you, so that her skirt slips up to the tops of her stockings? —Gilbert Sorrentino, Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things (1971)61. I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. —W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge (1944)62. Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. —Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)63. The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. —G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)64. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)65. You better not never tell nobody but God. —Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1982)66. "To be born again," sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, "first you have to die." —Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (1988)67. It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York. —Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)68. Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. —David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)69. If I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. —Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964)70. Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up. —Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear it Away (1960)71. Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peephole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me. —GŸnter Grass, The Tin Drum (1959; trans. Ralph Manheim)72. When Dick Gibson was a little boy he was not Dick Gibson. —Stanley Elkin, The Dick Gibson Show (1971)73. Hiram Clegg, together with his wife Emma and four friends of the faith from Randolph Junction, were summoned by the Spirit and Mrs. Clara Collins, widow of the beloved Nazarene preacher Ely Collins, to West Condon on the weekend of the eighteenth and nineteenth of April, there to await the End of the World. —Robert Coover, The Origin of the Brunists (1966)74. She waited, Kate Croy, for her father to come in, but he kept her unconscionably, and there were moments at which she showed herself, in the glass over the mantel, a face positively pale with the irritation that had brought her to the point of going away without sight of him. —Henry James, The Wings of the Dove (1902)75. In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. —Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929)76. "Take my camel, dear," said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. —Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond (1956)77. He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. —Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim (1900)78. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. —L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)79. On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. —Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker (1980)80. Justice?—You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law. —William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own (1994)81. Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash. —J. G. Ballard, Crash (1973)82. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)83. "When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." —Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (1983)84. In the last years of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taut with similes stretched to the snapping-point. —John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960)85. When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. —James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss (1978)86. It was just noon that Sunday morning when the sheriff reached the jail with Lucas Beauchamp though the whole town (the whole county too for that matter) had known since the night before that Lucas had killed a white man. —William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust (1948)87. I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Idiot," or "That Claudius," or "Claudius the Stammerer," or "Clau-Clau-Claudius" or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius," am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the "golden predicament" from which I have never since become disentangled. —Robert Graves, I, Claudius (1934)88. Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. —Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)89. I am an American, Chicago born—Chicago, that somber city—and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. —Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953)90. The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist; austere towers of steel and cement and limestone, sturdy as cliffs and delicate as silver rods. —Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (1922)91. I will tell you in a few words who I am: lover of the hummingbird that darts to the flower beyond the rotted sill where my feet are propped; lover of bright needlepoint and the bright stitching fingers of humorless old ladies bent to their sweet and infamous designs; lover of parasols made from the same puffy stuff as a young girl's underdrawers; still lover of that small naval boat which somehow survived the distressing years of my life between her decks or in her pilothouse; and also lover of poor dear black Sonny, my mess boy, fellow victim and confidant, and of my wife and child. But most of all, lover of my harmless and sanguine self. —John Hawkes, Second Skin (1964)92. He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. —Raphael Sabatini, Scaramouche (1921)93. Psychics can see the color of time it's blue. —Ronald Sukenick, Blown Away (1986)94. In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together. —Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)95. Once upon a time two or three weeks ago, a rather stubborn and determined middle-aged man decided to record for posterity, exactly as it happened, word by word and step by step, the story of another man for indeed what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal, a somewhat paranoiac fellow unmarried, unattached, and quite irresponsible, who had decided to lock himself in a room a furnished room with a private bath, cooking facilities, a bed, a table, and at least one chair, in New York City, for a year 365 days to be precise, to write the story of another person—a shy young man about of 19 years old—who, after the war the Second World War, had come to America the land of opportunities from France under the sponsorship of his uncle—a journalist, fluent in five languages—who himself had come to America from Europe Poland it seems, though this was not clearly established sometime during the war after a series of rather gruesome adventures, and who, at the end of the war, wrote to the father his cousin by marriage of the young man whom he considered as a nephew, curious to know if he the father and his family had survived the German occupation, and indeed was deeply saddened to learn, in a letter from the young man—a long and touching letter written in English, not by the young man, however, who did not know a damn word of English, but by a good friend of his who had studied English in school—that his parents both his father and mother and his two sisters one older and the other younger than he had been deported they were Jewish to a German concentration camp Auschwitz probably and never returned, no doubt having been exterminated deliberately X * X * X * X, and that, therefore, the young man who was now an orphan, a displaced person, who, during the war, had managed to escape deportation by working very hard on a farm in Southern France, would be happy and grateful to be given the opportunity to come to America that great country he had heard so much about and yet knew so little about to start a new life, possibly go to school, learn a trade, and become a good, loyal citizen. —Raymond Federman, Double or Nothing (1971)96. Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. —Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye (1988)97. He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters. —Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)98. High, high above the North Pole, on the first day of 1969, two professors of English Literature approached each other at a combined velocity of 1200 miles per hour. —David Lodge, Changing Places (1975)99. They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. —Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)100. The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. —Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895)Here is another good list of some of the best first lines (some books are listed above and here and others are new to this post)… Enjoy!10 Books That Hooked Us at the Very First SentenceBy Rebecca ShapiroEveryone knows that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But no one said anything about the first line. In fact, we think that the first line of a book is often the most revealing. When done right, it should tantalize, intrigue and tell you something fundamental about the pages to follow. Here are ten of the very best.PENGUIN CLASSICS“ANNA KARENINA” BY LEO TOLSTOY“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”The first line to Tolstoy’s epic tragedy is famous for good reason: It’s full of wisdom, and it lets readers know that they’re in for some serious family drama. And what’s better than family drama (as long as it's not your own)?MARINER BOOKS“THE COLOR PURPLE” BY ALICE WALKER“You better not tell nobody but God.”Celie, the narrator of Alice Walker’s masterpiece, is a poor, uneducated black girl living in the South in the 1930s. She tells her secrets to God, because she has no one else. Here, in just a few words, we get a taste of Celie’s strong voice and her terrible heartbreak.BROADWAY BOOKS“THE MARTIAN” BY ANDY WEIR“I’m pretty much fucked.”If you saw the movie, you already know that astronaut Mark Watney is a pretty funny guy, even when he’s been abandoned on Mars. There’s plenty of tension (and math) in Andy Weir’s novel, but we love it as much for the warm humor, which is evident from the very first line.PICADOR“MIDDLESEX” BY JEFFREY EUGENIDES“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”The first line to Eugenides’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a textbook example of efficient writing. In a single sentence, he manages to set up the novel’s oh-so-intriguing premise (ICYMI, the book is about a hermaphrodite), as well as the time period and place.CREATESPACE“MOBY DICK” BY HERMAN MELVILLE“Call me Ishmael.”And call us predictable. It’s probably the most famous first line in literary history. We included it because it’s got panache. Novels at the time were not exactly into succinct sentences (see: all of Dickens) and Moby Dick continues with some equally flowery prose pretty quickly. But with this short, mysterious declaration, Melville shows that he knows how to make an entrance.VINTAGE“THE SECRET HISTORY” BY DONNA TARTT“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we understood the gravity of our situation.”OK, who is Bunny and why is he dead? We’re only one line in and we have an almost physical need to keep reading. Donna Tartt’s addictive debut, about an obsessive clique embroiled in a murder mystery, hits the ground running (and with gorgeous prose, to boot).PENGUIN BOOKS“PRIDE AND PREJUDICE” BY JANE AUSTEN“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”Another oft-quoted oldie-but-goodie. Jane Austen’s first line gets us right in the thick of the complicated world of 19th-century social life, and introduces us right away to her slightly cheeky tone.VINTAGE“LOLITA” BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”We never thought that the (fictional) jailhouse memoir of a creepy pedophile would end up being one our of favorite books of all time. But damn, the man can write.ANCHOR“A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD” BY JENNIFER EGAN“It began in the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel.”We love the idea of anything beginning “in the usual way” in a hotel bathroom. The first line of Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of linked stories is, like the rest of the book, quirky and totally unique.HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT“THE HANDMAID’S TALE” BY MARGARET ATWOOD“We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.”Though the first line of Margaret Atwood’s dystopia is simple, there’s an undeniably ominous tone, and it raises many more questions than it answers—an ideal start to a terrifying, mind-bending