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Trans Woman, 29, Beats Girl, 13, To Win First Place At Skateboarding Contest
Four of the six competitors were under 17, the youngest being 10.
Ricci Tres has been declared the winner of the Boardr Open, a street skateboarding contest open to all participants at all skill levels but saw a category of male and female contests. The Los-Angeles based won the women’s title and a prize of $500, while a 13-Year-Old, named Shiloh Catori came in second, taking home $250.
Notably, Tres is a Transgender. The 29-Year-Old had been born male but now identifies as a woman.
Four of the six competitors at the contest were reportedly under 17, including a 10-Year-Old girl, Juri Likura, who emerged fifth. So far, the news of Tres being a Trans yet beating out Shiloh of Tampa, Florida, has not been taken relatively lightly on the internet. It has since sparked outrage, and one among the voices is Irk’s fellow Skateboarder, Taylor Silverman.
Taylor weighed in on the contest, revealing how she has come in second place in recent competitions, having been beaten by Trans women.
Taking to Instagram, she wrote: “I have been in three different contests with trans women, two of which I placed second,” adding that in one competition organized by Red Bull, the transgender winner won thousands of dollars. She continued: “This totaled $5,000 of the prize money meant for female athletes. I reached out to Redbull and was ignored. I am sick of being bullied into silence. What happened was unfair and at the time, I was too uncomfortable to speak up.”
“I understand that in today’s society, even some women think this is acceptable, but I believe in doing the right thing even if it’s not the popular thing. I now realize it’s really important for me to speak up and I’d like to schedule a time to talk.”
Taylor actually lost to Trans skater Lilian Gallagher during the competition that was held in May. Since then, she’s been using her social media presence to campaign for the preservation of women’s athletics by calling for contests to revert to women competing against their biological women and men competing against biological men. Her comments did come as the issue of if Trans women have a competitive advantage over biological women is of hot debate.
In December 2021, the issue emerged as Lia Thomas blew past other women competing at the University of Akron’s Zippy Invitational, winning the 1650 freestyle by 38 seconds.
The University of Pennsylvania Trans swimmer also won the 500 freestyle by 12 seconds and the 200 by 7 seconds. Lia had swum competitively for the men’s team for three years before switching to the women’s team. However, a recent Gallup poll suggested that 62% of Americans believe athletes should only participate in sporting teams that correspond with their born sex rather than their gender identity.
