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What about competing against gravity and time, for example racing and throwing and jumping events? It's not as if some guy is trying to pull the shot out of a female shot-putters hands. It's not as if some guy is trying to push a female cyclist off her bike. It's not as if some guy is trying to knock over a track sprinter while she's running. But there is absolutely no point in a female athlete attempting to be the best in those events if female athletes are not a protected class. The current women's Olympic champions would get annihilated in their disciplines by high-school boys.
In an example previously posted, I love knowing that Valerie Adams is one of the greatest athletes in history. Because she competes in the protected class of "female athlete". If shotput competition were open, I would never have heard of her and neither would anyone else. She would never have even started competing. There would have been no point. Multiply that "never even starting" by every girl who ever considers sport, and that's an alternate timeline with a lot less awesome and a LOT more gender inequality. Every millionaire athlete and world champion and possessor of an "overcoming adversity to win" life story that gets made into a movie in that timeline is male.
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