Posted on 05/02/2019 10:28:23 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
On Wednesday morning, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favor of the restrictions placed on female track athletes with high levels of testosterone by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The landmark decision means that women like Caster Semenya of South Africa, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800 meters, must take testosterone suppressants in order to continue competing in certain middle-distance events.
Since 2009, when Semenya won the World Championship 800 meters in Berlin at the age of 18, the middle-distance runner has been heavily scrutinized by the IAAF. At 5-foot-10 and with a distinctly muscular build, she stood out on the starting line and obliterated the field—running 1:55.45, two seconds faster than second place. The IAAF launched an investigation, ultimately deciding that Semenya, now 28, appeared to have DSD, a disorder of sex development that might produce atypically high (for a woman) levels of natural testosterone—and which might, in turn, enhance her running performance or give her an edge over other female athletes.
While Semenya’s hormone levels are not public knowledge, the runner is presumed to be hyperandrogenic, meaning she has levels of testosterone that exceed the “normal” limits for women (anything above 10 nmols/liter). This excess of testosterone, the IAAF claimed in a 2017 press release, puts hyperandrogenic athletes at an advantage, according to their cited research: “Certain events female athletes with high testosterone levels benefit from a 1.8 percent to 4.5 percent competitive advantage over female athletes with lower testosterone levels,” the federation wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
I think they should set it at less than 100, since most women’s T counts are between 15 and 70. Strict, but fair.
Find someone to read the articles to you slowly. Also to read out the text from the Sun article, that I put directly in my post. Also look up, never mind, have someone else look up “intersex” and chromosomes and explain to you, as slowly as needed, that intersex individuals do not have XX chromosomes.
I admire that you manage, despite your profound learning-disability, to operate a keyboard, but it’s never wrong to ask for help. You’re so brave (means not scared).
Google “Caster Semenya Internal Testes”
Your not very bright.
Not much sense arguing with someone who gets their information from tabloids.
Carry on, Mr. Schiff.
Stop embarrassing yourself.
https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Semenya_ASA_IAAF_decision.pdf
Semenya’s intersex/XY condition, which is is widely known, is directly addressed (as 46 X/Y DSD) in the referenced court decision. ( But maybe the court’s press release is really a “tabloid” )
Fortunately the athletics court is taking some action to keep XY intersex athletes like Semenya from competing unmedicated against females.
It seems to disappoint the left-wing gender-fluidity fans here, but it’s for the best.
I was really commenting on aberration of how much testosterone she produced but as more was revealed about her I can say whether or not she is a female.
I do NOT support non-females competing against females.
Her case is not so obvious as the gender fluid males who compete. Who I do not support.
Athletes like Semenya will medicate down just enough to slip under the limit.
Meanwhile what do real women do — medicate up to the limit? That’s really their only option to be competitive.
And apparently the allowed women’s T limit is still well above what an actual XX female would have. But it is still better than nothing, like when Semenya and the other intersex non-females were allowed to compete with as much T as their testes produced against actual XX females. That was the rule in effect for the infamous 2016 Olympic women’s 800 meters. (zero medals to females)
Better would be to ban intersex entirely from women’s sports. Should be female only.
Agree.
I see it heading towards tiered levels of femaleness. Something like “normal”, “dyke”, and “freak”. Those terms wouldn’t be used but they’d be the basic categories.
Sounds harsh but I don’t know how you’d get level playing fields otherwise.
Meanwhile mens sports is unaffected by the issue because max natural testosterone is always allowed as the potential, if no probable, winner.
well, I suppose if you think that the body is like a sports car, and all the racers should have to compete with identical cars.
We could also have leagues based on height, so that shorter people can win without having to compete against taller people, since it is hard to change your height successfully.
Or, we could just understand that everybody is unique, and it is likely that the top 1% of athletes have many genetic advantages over the rest of us, and that is part of what makes them great athletes, and that still, much of what makes someone able to compete successfully is training, getting into shape, learning the skillsets needed. This is more clear in sports that require a more varied set of skills (like baseball, football, soccer) than a sport like running, where the method to achieve the goal is much simpler.
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