Up and coming contest transgender skateboarder Ricci Tres defends competing against children after beating a 13-year-old girl in the Boardr Open skateboarding competition and a $500 prize saying, "I'm not going to go easy on them because they're kids."
In her Daily Mail interview, Tres paused for a while after being asked if she had a physical advantage.
"Look at me. I'm not buff or anything." She explained. "I don't work out really, I just skateboard. And I don't think skateboarding has anything to do with physicality, especially when you look at kids these days."
The former Navy officer who previously went by Richard Batres said that all the feedback she received was necessary, and she loved it.
"It goes in hand with all the feedback I am receiving. A lot of it is negative, a lot of it is positive." Tres said. "I think it's all necessary. People can get angry people can get happy and people can come together and come up with something. Personally I don't think segregating everything is the right way. I feel like that would be calling us different, like a different human race when we're not."
According to the trans woman, the kids aged 12 and up are just as much of a threat to her as adults, and that means it's fair for her to compete against them since skate kids these days are way more gnarlier than a regular skateboarder.
"It's kind of like a race car driver. It doesn't matter what you look like; you can drive the car regardless of your physique," she said.