The End Of Women's Sports As We Know It? Is Caster Semenya The Favorite For Gold For The 2016 Olympics?

At least track isn't a combat sport. In MMA, they let trannies pummel real females.

No Cyborg was just a PED abuser who took so much HGH she looked like a tranny. She looks like a normal female now that she is "clean"....

Why should intergender/transexuals not be allowed to compete in the world champs or olympics? The discrimination is very unfair as people such as Caster Semanya are human beings like any other track and field athlete.

Track and field at the Olympics/World Champs should be a single "open division" which does not discriminate against any sex. It is the only fair way of doing things. If you run/jump/throw the qualifying standard set by the IAAF/IOC, you should be allowed to compete regardless of your sex. If people are worried about too few people making the standard just make the standard lower and have more qualifying heats and a bigger field in the marathon.

I know you're trolling but some people actually think that.

Okay, so they do that. No more gender divisions. No woman will ever win a medal again. You do realize that their are high school boys who could run faster than many professional women right? Grant Fisher could probably smoke Dibaba in a 1500. He is a college freshman, she is currently the worlds best female distance runner.

If the Olympics/WCs were set up this way you would see feminists whining that they are oppressed by not having a separate division and that it isn't equal that males always stomp them, every time.

Who were the members of this panel? Seems to me this decision was guided by a male dominated point of view; If the person is not a perfectly formed male, then they must be a female. Some people can't conceive that someone without a penis can still be male. And the members of this court probably feel so enlightened by having ruled this way.

And no one says they can't compete. They just have to compete in the division in which their genetics and testosterone are more aligned with, and that would be male. Why must they be allowed to compete in a division in which they have a clear advantage? To compete as a female, there are certainly medical procedures they can have that will alter their bodies so they are more female. Isn't it healthier for people with these conditions to do so, anyway (remove internal testes, etc.)?

Why can't any self-defined group have it's own sports organizations and make its own rules? Special Olympics, Maccabiah Games, women's sports, men's sports. These categories must by their very nature exclude some people while they include others. There will always be those who are in a gray area - whose exclusion is essentially arbitrary. Even if Caster is allowed, there's someone else out there who is barely disqualified.

As for the Court of Arbitration for Sports, its decisions are, as its name implies, arbitrary.

I heard Caster was also going to have the feet cut off and replaced with blades for the Games.

They say they have the right to compete just like everyone and while I guess that is true I look it at is as they are different, nothing can make that not true. It's like a handicap. It stinks but there are tons of people that are born with diseases or other handicaps that don't go whining to the CAS for a way to compete in events. I was born short, can I petition my way into the NBA because I feel I have the right to play like everyone else?

I'm sorry but sports just aren't for people born that way.

I do feel for these women - for if they self-identify as women I am happy to call them women - but I do not think they should necessarily be permitted to participate in women's professional sports.

Because, from a biological (not social) perspective, they may in fact be male.

WHY professional sports bodies played the politics game instead of consulting medical professionals, I cannot say. Why it is okay to use the appearance of someone's external genitalia to decide what sex they are? This criteria is not only antiquated, but flat out wrong.

Some medical definitions:

1) male pseudohermaphrodite - Generally speaking, someone who has a vulva and clitoris but also has testicles. This person is medically MALE. Caster Semenya is a male, medically speaking, not a female.

2) female pseudohermaphrodite - someone who has a penis and the appearance of a male externally but actually has ovaries.

3) True hermaphrodite - both ovaries and testicles are present.

All of these conditions fall under the term "intersex" and what someone looks like externally has a lot to do with what hormones were around during a certain period of gestation.

Hyperandrogenism means too much testosterone. There are several causes of hyperandrogenism. Internal testicles is one cause. Other causes include Cushings disease, adrenal gland tumors, and polycystic ovarian disease in women. These other types of hyperandrogenism, due to the fact that people with them are typically ill, are probably not performance enhancing.

Why can the IAAF not just use the biological definitions of sex and leave it at that? And if there is any questions (for example, a true hermaphrodite), make them compete with the men.

YES it sucks that now these people will be publicly submitted to a barrage of tests. YES it can be humiliating. But public scrutiny is a price you must pay for the privilege of competing on the international stage.

J

I think this ruling applies only to hyperandrogenic females such as Dutee Chand--not hypoandrogenic males such as Caster Semenya. I think genetic males that want to compete in the female classification still have to conform to an upper normal female hormone level through chemical or surgical means.

The point of the CAS ruling, brought by a Chand appeal, is that genetic females should not be required to conform to an arbitrary upper normal hormone level by chemical means. Hormonal therapy decisions in these cases should be driven solely for medical purposes with the sole purpose of promoting the health of the patient--not to qualify for competition. For any physical or physiological characteristic with a distribution, there will always be outliers, so you cannot penalize or disqualify outliers. In athletics, the Olympians are all outliers in terms of their performance. Also, it is not necessary that the female range of hormones not overlap the male range--just like height of basketball players there are some female players that are taller than some male players--we do not disqualify over 2.00m female players.

I think the IOC got it right in defining a normal female hormonal level for male-to-female transgender athletes, but still needs to define males by genetics (having a Y chromosome) to determine who has to comply and who does not. A genetic male with complete androgen insensitivity will be in the normal female range (or actually below the female range and require a TUE for a little bit of testosterone for health purposes) and have no problem. Caster, with incomplete insensitivity will present female outward appearance from birth, but enjoyed a late/partial male puberty. He/she has to make a decision to compete as a male as is or take hormone therapy to compete with females. It appears she chose the latter, as the reduced male hormone levels has not allowed her to maintain her previous training load and suffered some overtraining injuries. With a reduction in male hormones, it is likely that she will not be able to again achieve a sub-2:00 performance.

Why not let a man pretending to be a woman compete with the girls? You are so closed minded and bigoted. I can't believe you are so barbaric as to expect a biological man who believes deep in their heart they are a woman trapped in a man's body to compete as a gender they don't believe they are. What is wrong with you?

1. Thank you Letsrun.com for bringing us up to speed on the CAS decision.

2. Your opinion on the matter means nothing. Are you an expert? Just report the facts, please.

3. When reporting the facts, please seek out an expert for clarification and comment, rather than just another "journalist" you know.

Good day.

Caster Semenya passed the testing even when the old regulations were in effect. She's been cleared to compete for years now.

OK we set up a Restricted Male and a Restricted Female division** where tighter guidelines about gender identification and body chemistry than we have now will apply to an athlete who wishes to compete in these restricted divisions. We then create the larger Open Division where you compete with out gender restriction or labels and no body chemistry boundaries at all.

if we look at the divisions like weight classes in wrestling or boxing they have no minimum required in the class . If you weight 114 pounds and want to enter the 148 pound class you can but you can not compete in the 112 class unless you drop a couple to get you too 112 or less.

If you are a natural female (what ever these tighter restrictions limit that definition to) and want to compete in the open division please enter you are welcome. Just not vice versa.

if those who wish to enter the Open Division think they can sue to get the Open Division divided into I identify as open division profile A and I identify open division profile B-- fine ---have at it.

** we would drop the male and female label and call the Profile A and Profile B Divisions some better (non gender alluding) marketing label. . . Power Division Finesse Division- heck Mad Ave folks can have a field day with this.

TH

Yes, so previously, the IOC had medical experts examine the athlete invasively and run a bunch of tests, and a panel made a determination. That was very unpopular. Then recently, they swung the other way and tried to define males and females by an arbitrary hormone level cutoff regardless of the genetics.

I think the final solution will be a simple, two-step process that goes like this:

Step 1: simple genetic test for the presence of a Y chromosome. No Y chromosome, the person is female, and she can compete in the female class, not subject to any endogenous testosterone limits.

Step 2: genetic males (with a Y chromosome) that wish to compete in the female class are subject to the female upper normal limit for testosterone.

We need to end sexism and have all people compete in the same group.

Drugs,Drugs,Drugs! wrote:

No Cyborg was just a PED abuser who took so much HGH she looked like a tranny. She looks like a normal female now that she is "clean"....

He was more likely talking about the actual transsexual fighter, Fallon Fox.