Out on the pitch, they can finally feel like themselves.
In addition to the sheer joy that soccer brings them, Mara Gomez has the extra satisfaction of knowing that after a long and difficult journey, she is blazing a trail for transgender players in Argentina.
Tall, slim and with her hair tied back in a ponytail, Gomez plays for the team of Villa San Carlos in La Plata, 60m south of Buenos Aires. At 23, she aims to become the first transgender player in her country’s new women’s professional league.
Photo: AFP
“I suffered a lot from discrimination, exclusion, verbal abuse in the street and in school. Soccer was like therapy for me,” Gomez said.
She started playing at 15, encouraged by neighbors.
In the women’s league in La Plata, Gomez has distinguished herself as a leading goal scorer in the past two seasons, which prompted Villa San Carlos — in last place in the women’s professional league — to seek to recruit her.
“She’s quick and is very good at kicking on target,” trainer Juan Cruz Vitale said. “Unlike what people and the media were thinking, she isn’t that strong. I have a number of girls who are stronger and even though she’s fast, I have girls who are faster.”
However, Vitale added: “She’s smart and learns quickly — and she gets goals, which is what we were lacking.”
The club is in the process of submitting its application to the Argentine Football Association to sign Gomez up, once the coronavirus lockdown ends.
“There is a law on gender identity that they can’t get around. We are convinced she is going to be a star,” the coach said.
Argentina led Latin America by passing a gender identity law in 2012, which allowed Gomez to officially change her gender on her national identity card when she turned 18.
“I am very happy to know that as a society, we are doing a little more. We are opening up minds,” she said, as she contemplated the prospect of becoming a professional player in a country that has produced some of the world’s best soccer player, including Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi.
Union del Suburbio president Sebastian Rajoy said that “everyone has the right to play sports.”
“Clubs on the margins are the ones offering the opportunity,” he added. “Someone has to take the first step and in this case, it is us.”
In this early stage of incorporating transgender players, Gomez and Rojo are aware that they could be asked to submit to a hormone test before they are fully accepted into the leagues.
“The discussion is linked to the dilemma between biology and respect for people’s rights,” said Ayelen Pujol, a specialist in gender identity in sports.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but