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Professional women’s disc golf now finds itself with a biological male claiming to be a transgender woman knocking women out of the top money all across the country.
Like Lia Thomas, all year, this new trans athlete, Natalie Ryan, has been taking home one trophy after another — and the thousands of dollars in prize money that comes along with them. And Ryan, who has instantaneously jumped into the rankings as the world’s fifth best-ranked women’s disc golfer, has only been playing the sport for a mere three years.
Disc golf has been shocked as Ryan has come out of nowhere to dominate women’s disc golf, knocking women out of the rankings which have been playing for many years.
In a far-reaching article on Ryan’s sudden rise to top rankings in the sport, Quillette’s Jonathan Kay notes that most women feel compelled to remain quiet on the unfairness of Ryan’s miraculous rise to the top. Still, a few women did speak out to him anonymously for fear of retaliation.
This year, Ryan won July’s Great Lakes Open in Milford, Mich., taking home $6,000 for a first-place finish, beating the sport’s no. 2-ranked player Paige Pierce. The Great Lakes Open was touted as a great leap forward because it featured a men’s and women’s division in disc golf. But, with Ryan winning the women’s division, it turned out men won both top categories.
As it happens, Paige Piece has been playing disc golf professionally for at least a decade and is a five-time Disc Golf world champion. But this year, she faced a “female” disc golfer who is only in the third season of playing and has soared to the top of this pro sport.
Ryan then entered the recent Disc Golf Pro Tour event held in Leicester, Mass., and toppled the sport’s no. 1 female player, Kristin Tattar. As a result, Ryan took home the top $9,000 prize, pushing Tatter to second place for $6,000.
