The athlete who lost to the transgender woman: "Receiving threats on my life" | Israel today

A big storm in recent days in American sports, after skater Taylor Silverman surfaced in a post she came out against the participation of transgender women in competitions.

The 27-year-old Silverman participated last December in the "Red Bull" round of competitions held in Michigan, when she qualified for the finals, but there she finished in second place, after trans woman Lillian Gallagher took first place on the podium.

"I'm tired of being silent," Taylor complained on Instagram, in a post so far that has garnered about 38,000 comments and 30,000 likes.

"A biological man with a clear advantage won the women's competition, the best trick, and also won the qualifiers. I understand that in today's society some women think it's acceptable but it's not fair."

Taylor Silverman skates // Credit: Oren Aharoni

The Jewish Silverman, who makes sure to wear a Star of David or Hamsa necklace around her neck, wrote the post while here in Israel, after coming on a trip as part of the "Birthright" project last March, when she also found time to train in the industry she loves so much and on the way. Here and even soon intends to make an aliyah as well.

"It's my big dream to start a family here," she said.

Silverman in action, Photo: Oren Aharoni

She started training 11 years ago, when she tried several sports, but realized that skateboarding has something cool and in the winter she also goes through and practices snowboarding.

"It just happened, I fell in love with it and I just can not stop training and competing," she admitted.

Now, as she tries to recover from training to training and go through endless reactions, Silverman turned to a special interview with Israel Today to talk about the issue she raised on the agenda and like fire in a field of thorns, dragged her power to debate whether transgender women could compete in women's competitions.

"I did not expect it to be like that," Silverman said.

"It took me a long time to think what to write and it did not happen right away, but as time went on, I realized how unfair it was. I tried to contact the competition organizers but so far I have not received an answer, so I did not really have a choice."

Why did it cause such a storm?

"Competitions with transgender people is a controversial issue in the United States, even hard to come up with. I felt safe and relaxed here to bring it out and get on the agenda. When they did not answer I chose social media, when I explained the issue and the money involved in losing thousands of dollars That tens of thousands shared it. "

"It could be that a lot of people were waiting for women to come out and talk about it, I'm not the first woman to bring up the subject, but my story has received a lot of attention from the media as well, a lot of people also dislike this situation. "When they knew what your result was like that."

Silverman.

Receives threats on her life, Photo: Oren Aharoni

What responses did you get?

"There were so many, when I kept accepting. Most of the reactions were positive and supportive, with a lot of people saying I was right. There were reactions from parents of athletes, from themselves, from ordinary people and even trans people who wanted to express their support, even when they themselves said it was unfair."

"But unfortunately I get a lot of negative reactions mostly from the US, hate messages, wishing me to die and threatening me, telling me 'you will not train anymore in skateboard parks', calling me by all sorts of nicknames, and putting a target on my back, but I try to ignore it And delete them, when I know most of them are writing without knowing what they are talking about. "

"It's hard for me to understand how anyone can ignore so many facts, that Terence is on the skateboard to compete against women and that it's a fair situation, but should take the positive side, with everyone who shared and commented and know how much influence I have, when maybe some things will change because of it, But on the other hand, the hatred towards me illustrates why women are so afraid to talk about it. "

How will you behave in the next competitions you encounter in the same situation?

"This is not the first competition we have encountered in biological men competing with women and I believe that soon it will not change, it is only the first time I realized that someone needs to say something, so I think I will continue to compete."

"No one can take skateboarding from me, it's my life, I practice it almost every day and also gave me motivation to develop the industry here in Israel, when the community here accepts me maybe a little more contained than the American one, when there is a big skateboarding scene here that surprised me, "The level is high and in such a small area with a difference of 20 minutes, there are a lot of parks."

What about the skateboard that entered the Olympics?

"It's very cool. There were a lot of opinions at first when it came in. There were some who objected because it's hard to judge, but now it's become a much more serious industry.

"I'm not getting young, when we saw in Tokyo the young ages who entered the competition, so I will continue to compete and maybe I did not get to the Olympics but now my goal is that one day I will have children, I will look them in the eye and tell them I tried everything to have a fair competition and give a chance It is equal for women to win. "

So what do you think the sport will look like in a decade?

"We now see that there are more and more such stories in all kinds of disciplines and not long ago it also happened in swimming. In the end not the avoidable sex, as there is competition for things, competitions for women, there will be a separate category competition for trans people so one could compete fairly "Hopefully there will be more votes that will put this on the agenda."

"But it all depends on how people hear everyone now, people need to understand that their reaction is important, so one who wants to have fair competition and what I do here and in recent days is perhaps the first step to getting the opportunity we deserve - before it becomes much more complicated to find the solution And girls will just stop competing. "

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