I saw a comment on another post saying that Lia Thomas’ only advantage was her height and linked to a sports scientist that would agree with them. I wish I could find the link again because she very much would not have agreed with the sentiment that height was the only difference.

The scientist basically said what you did here, that there is A LOT of nuance with this topic, and it varies with each sport. It’s height, muscle mass, hemoglobin, heart size, time since transition, stable testosterone level (which is measured differently by different leagues), etc.

All of her points had a study or two to back her up but she rightfully said that there just isn’t enough information when it comes to trans athletes. Most of the studies were done on average people. Because of this each sport has to make their own decision on how they want to handle having a transgender person.

Her biggest point was that they should be able to compete if there is meaningful competition, not even fair competition, because even in sports with one gender there are factors that can make it “unfair” such as right and left handedness in baseball.

It was a great article but the OP that posted it focused on what they wanted to get out of it. Wish I could find it.