I wish they would go to these lengths to stop Kenyan doping.
As somebody else said here recently, Kenyan cheating is ruining both men's and women's athletics even more than these 'intersex athletes'.
I mean really, we're talking a handful of such runners, compared to hundreds of Kenyan dopers. One dominant intersex runner (Caster) in one event, compared to dozens of Kenyan Olympic and world champions, world record holders, junior champions, Diamond League winners, and that's just on the track.
One is far simpler and they do not need to be mutually exclusive.
I would argue the Kenyan doping solution is even simpler, just ban the country completely until they prove they can test their athletes effectively. It just takes some courage.
In a similar line of thought, I think that the IAAF is well ahead of most sports in getting these issues addressed and mostly resolved and that might be a good reason to do this. So to be clear, I have questions but think that a slightly adjusted version of this is good policy.
I would also like to see why this is better policy than the current rules (legal issues hinted above) may well be the driving concern. I'm interested in a discussion of the issues, not some opinion that the world follows your opinion, there is no content that is relevant to discussion of an important, if special case of sport.
it is all about finding a way to ban dsd/trans in a way that they think will stand up to legal challenges. And if you test everyone you avoid the targeting woman who look like men claims. Test is cheap enough to deal with people at the worlds level.
Is this better than assigned at birth and test limits? Works out about the same from filtering people. What is legally/socialably acceptable is a different story. Nobody wonders how to detect trans woman in sports. People wonder if they should be allowed to compete. This says no with exceptions that going to be rare (basically you need to be on puberty blockers by like 12)
it is all about finding a way to ban dsd/trans in a way that they think will stand up to legal challenges. And if you test everyone you avoid the targeting woman who look like men claims. Test is cheap enough to deal with people at the worlds level.
Is this better than assigned at birth and test limits? Works out about the same from filtering people. What is legally/socialably acceptable is a different story. Nobody wonders how to detect trans woman in sports. People wonder if they should be allowed to compete. This says no with exceptions that going to be rare (basically you need to be on puberty blockers by like 12)
Under the new rule, you will still be banned even if you are on puberty blocker by 12. That's the whole point of introducing this genetic test.
If you test positive for SRY gene, the only way you can be eligible is to prove you have CAIS. (Unless you are one of the athletes with DSD who are "grandfathered" into this new policy.)
But it is not likely to be challenged in the court, because the best trans athlete who was eligible under the 2023 policy is far from reaching the elite level. (Think about the irony for a moment. They are introducing this test in order to ban a handful of athletes who are way below the elite level.)
A cheek swab is invasive? A blood test is no more invasive than any other drug test. I’d consider someone taking a cheek swab far less invasive than watching me take a piss. Maybe I’m just old fashioned that way.
Lol I guarantee none if those women are serious athletes, if they are even women at all. Anecdotal, but none of my female college teammates are looking to compete against men. I assume the same is true if you polled other college XC teams.
Furthermore, this page is clearly trying to imflame people by calling it "gene testing" like they are drilling into people's bone marrow or something. It is a cheek swap, takes 2 seconds and is painless. As a college athlete I have to let another man watch me pee at least once a semester to be eligible. The people commenting clearly do not understand or care about high level sports at all, they are just looking for another reason to be angry.
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