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Hyperandrogenism / Caster Semenya & others

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  • I suppose one solution is not to call it women's sport but sport for people with testosterone levels between x and y. But not sure that would work. 
  • the recent Paddy Power 'football captain's dilemma' comedy advert sums up sport's, perhaps even society's present predicament over gender ((:>) 
  • This has been done before .. an anagram of Caster Semenya could read .. 'Yes a secret man'
  • Load of old bollox
  • I just think she’s a natural genetic outlier. Yes - it maybe difficult (and unlucky) for her competitors.....but as others have said....a very slippery slope if the sport now condones (and even demands) performance affecting drug taking to level the field. 
  • Load of old bollox

    I don't think it's that much, just high testosterone levels.
  • Load of old bollox

    I don't think it's that much, just high testosterone levels.
    The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked in the press and are widely discussed, resulting in claims about Semenya having an intersex trait.[30][31.

    Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies".
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  • I just think she’s a natural genetic outlier. Yes - it maybe difficult (and unlucky) for her competitors.....but as others have said....a very slippery slope if the sport now condones (and even demands) performance affecting drug taking to level the field. 
    I agree - this happens in other sports, like swimmer Ian Thorpe's size 17 feet, or Usain Bolt's stride length.  It is difficult when they are in their sporting prime, and their fellow athletes are in effect competing for Silver, but the alternatives seem worse.

    I put this into a different catagory to trans sports people, but fear the two are becoming conflated.  

    Unisex sport really is not the answer - aside from equestrian events there are very few sports where men and women can compete on a level playing field.  Yes there is a lot of overlap in physique in the population as a whole, but an adult elite sportsman will always have a physical advantage over an elite sportswoman. 

    This difference in physique is also likely to apply to a transwoman athlete who went through puberty as a man.  For example, she will have a male shape pelvis, which is more efficient for running.  I cannot see a way of making competition with those who were female from birth "fair".  And sadly I have no answer to how to avoid discrimination against trans people in elite sport, while being fair to people who have been female from birth.
  • Load of old bollox

    I don't think it's that much, just high testosterone levels.
    The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked in the press and are widely discussed, resulting in claims about Semenya having an intersex trait.[30][31.

    Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies".
    That sentence from your Wikipedia copy and paste job is full of qualifications: 

    - never published officially
    - "some" results leaked
    claims that she may have a trait

    You can't seriously be inferring/implying from this that she's intersex, can you?
  • Load of old bollox

    I don't think it's that much, just high testosterone levels.
    The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked in the press and are widely discussed, resulting in claims about Semenya having an intersex trait.[30][31.

    Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies".
    Not conforming to a binary definition of biological sex? I'm sick of this virtue-signalling, snowflakey, woke "Nature."

    The way I see it, we decided upon binary groupings and dichotomy (against the advice of Aristotle) and now we should deal with it. She's a human being, who happens to be a woman, who happens to have a natural advantage in a sporting event.
  • edited May 2019
    PaddyP17 said:
    Load of old bollox

    I don't think it's that much, just high testosterone levels.
    The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked in the press and are widely discussed, resulting in claims about Semenya having an intersex trait.[30][31.

    Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies".
    That sentence from your Wikipedia copy and paste job is full of qualifications: 

    - never published officially
    - "some" results leaked
    claims that she may have a trait

    You can't seriously be inferring/implying from this that she's intersex, can you?
    I'm not inferring/implying anything.
    I simply putting it out there that her sex test results were said to have been leaked to the press and she is alleged to have an intersex trait.
    This was reported on the BBC news yesterday.
  • N01R4M said:
    I just think she’s a natural genetic outlier. Yes - it maybe difficult (and unlucky) for her competitors.....but as others have said....a very slippery slope if the sport now condones (and even demands) performance affecting drug taking to level the field. 
    I agree - this happens in other sports, like swimmer Ian Thorpe's size 17 feet, or Usain Bolt's stride length.  It is difficult when they are in their sporting prime, and their fellow athletes are in effect competing for Silver, but the alternatives seem worse.

    I put this into a different catagory to trans sports people, but fear the two are becoming conflated.  

    Unisex sport really is not the answer - aside from equestrian events there are very few sports where men and women can compete on a level playing field.  Yes there is a lot of overlap in physique in the population as a whole, but an adult elite sportsman will always have a physical advantage over an elite sportswoman. 

    This difference in physique is also likely to apply to a transwoman athlete who went through puberty as a man.  For example, she will have a male shape pelvis, which is more efficient for running.  I cannot see a way of making competition with those who were female from birth "fair".  And sadly I have no answer to how to avoid discrimination against trans people in elite sport, while being fair to people who have been female from birth.
    Why not have 3 sporting 'gender categories' .. male, female, transgender .. 'grading' is done for parasports. 
  • So why shouldn't all female athletes be able to up their testosterone levels to the same as hers, rather than the other way round?
  • Utter bollox
  • edited May 2019
    Maybe it shows what a great game football is. I mean Messi is not particularly tall and he is the best in the world. Mind you, taking nothing away from our excellent women's football team, but any half decent amateur side, and a few less decent than that, would beat them comfortably.
  • Maybe it shows what a great game football is. I mean Messi is not particularly tall and he is the best in the world. Mind you, taking nothing away from our excellent women's football team, but any half decent amateur side, and a few less decent than that, would beat them comfortably.
    And he was injected regularly with growth hormones when he first signed for Barcelona.
  • edited May 2019
    WSS said:
    Maybe it shows what a great game football is. I mean Messi is not particularly tall and he is the best in the world. Mind you, taking nothing away from our excellent women's football team, but any half decent amateur side, and a few less decent than that, would beat them comfortably.
    And he was injected regularly with growth hormones when he first signed for Barcelona.
    They don't seem to have done much! Seriously, I didn't know that. I hope they were safe.
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  • edited May 2019
    I agree with the female Athletic opponents of Caster Semenya, it's embarrassing to watch someone who has a male physique  and more testosterone than many male athletes, be allowed to run against female runners.

    The leek about intersex issues sounds correct. I don't believe one person's bizarre situation should trump every female athlete in the 800 or 1500M.

    If Semenya competed in the hammer or shot the testosterone level maybe set at a higher level ?

    Don't conflate Michael Phelps wingspan or Bjorn Borg low heart beat with the Caster Semenya situation.


  • Have details of Semenya's condition been leaked? This debate would be far less polarised if the specifics of her case were in the public domain.
  • Just watched Semenya win in second gear over 800m in the diamond League.
    Just plain embarrassing for the sport of female athletics.
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