(SNews) – A 50-year-old male swimmer was allowed to compete against girls as young as 13 years old in a regional swimming competition in Canada.
Swimming officials said they were simply going with national swimming guidelines when they gave the green light to a middle-aged man competing against young schoolgirls.
Nicholas J. Cepeda, who calls himself “Melody Wiseheart,” claims to be a transgender “woman.”
Cepeda competed against young girls ages 13-17 at the Richmond Hill Aquatic Centre’s Fall Classic.
The championship was hosted at the Markham Pan Am Centre, near Toronto, Canada.
Cepeda competed against nine other young female swimmers, all of whom were 13 or 14 years old.
He made a mockery of the “Girls 13 & over” age requirement for the 200-meter competition by taking advantage of “woke” rules that opened up an opportunity to abuse a loophole.
Cepeda was the only male competitor to swim in the competition meant for female children.
He was also the only swimmer in the entire event who was over 17 years old.
Organizers of the meet were confronted by reporter David Menzies.
Menzies presented a copy of the competition’s results to the “woke” swimming officials.
After initially denying the man’s participation, administrators admitted fault.
They then agreed that Cepeda did actually take part.
The event organizer told the reporter that he didn’t want to get into a debate on gender.
“Don’t talk about gender for me because I do not know, because the registration [is] whatever they enter,” said Richard Chan, one of the organizers.
“This is a 13-year-old girls’ [competition] so the registration is Swimming Canada’s,” he continued.
“Whatever registration [is] in Swimming Canada for that swimmer, whatever gender, it goes into whichever event,” Chan added.
According to Swimming Canada’s rules, swimmers can “swim as their declared gender.”
However, the rule only applies to “select athletes that are eligible to compete” on the national team.
Swimming Canada’s registration requirements state that “a transgender Swimmer must meet international federation criteria prior to declaring availability for selection at any National Team selection event.”
In June 2022, World Aquatics, then known as the International Swimming Federation or FINA, barred transgender athletes from competing against women in elite events, as Slay News reported.
Under the FINA rules, men can only compete against women under one condition: They must have “completed their transition” by the age of 12.
Another Canadian swimming organization, Aquatics Canada Aquatiques, reportedly agreed with the decision.
FINA recently developed an “open category” specifically for transgender athletes.
However, the category was closed just two months after it was created because zero participants registered.
Cepeda is also reportedly a professor at York University in the psychology department.
The college allows Cepeda to teach under the false name “Dr. Melody Wiseheart.”
The university lists Cepeda’s areas of research, which include “aging,” “children,” “youth,” and “cognitive processes” among others.
slaynews.com/news/50-year-old-male-swimmer-allowed-compete-13-year-old-girls/