Can Gender Change Mid-race? Javelina Jundred (100 mile) Trail Race Result Curiosity...

Some people used to giggle at the word "sex" and put "yes please" on forms when asked their sex. Immature people such as boys still in school and awkward young men who'd never had sex. But such reactions were far from the universal norm.

One of the reasons that "gender" came to replace "sex" in the mainstream media and everyday parlance was because of backlash against the so-called second wave feminism that flourished during the women's liberation era of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

First- and second-wave feminism focused on, took aim at and constantly discussed sex discrimination, sexism, sex stereotypes, sex roles, sex-based quotas, sexual harassment, sex crimes, sexual abuse of children, the sexual objectification of women and girls, and female human beings' longstanding status as "the second sex." Feminists talking about those things bothered a lot of people. Altering the terminology used in public discussions of these kinds of topics was an effective way of changing the subject, blunting the message, shifting the focus, sowing confusion and shutting feminist women up.

Making everything about gender rather than sex played a very big role in helping to hijack, defang and derail the women's liberation movement of the 70s and 80s.

In sports, shifting the focus and all the convos from sex to gender - and then to "gender identity" - was also a major factor behind the decisions made by the IOC and IAAF in the 1980s and 1990s to end mandatory genetic sex testing of all elite athletes in the women's division in order to make it easier for XY athletes with disorders/differences of male sex development to compete in women's sports.

Going off on a bit of tangent again I see?

Let's not get too caught up in the semantics and old policy/history. Although those are decent points about genetic testing...

But let's try an exercise in logic:

This race (like the Chicago Marathon) allowed individuals to sign up in the following categories:

Men, Women, and Non-Binary.

On the surface one would assume that double dipping would not be allowed: i.e. a runner in the Men's category could also not win the Women's category...or even the Non-Binary category.

But in this case some people are saying Riley can place on the podium in the Women's category as well, despite the fact that they signed up in the Non-Binary category? What if a runner in the non-binary category is also trans?

Furthermore the official race updates and tracking and leaderboards and even some versions of the results list Riley as winning the non-binary category but not placing in the Women's category (and that Nicole Bitter was 2nd place for Women).

So what gives? Is this "Non-Binary" category just a place holder/ label based on feelings with no real commitment or consequence? What about the top 3 runners in that category?...do they get ranked amongst the Women and Men overall as well too then?

BLAHBAHBLAH.

Riley signed up in the non-binary category, was told she needed to register as a female to be eligible for the Golden Ticket, switched to the female race, and the timing company didn't change the classification. Riley didn't enter two categories. Riley does not appear in the final results for he non-binary category.

This is, again, not complcated.

This person does disservice to non binary identifiers. Instead of accepting golden ticket, sit out the race as protest that they don't have a non binary division.

Or conversely, it was exactly how it should be, and didn't let self-identification dictate the competitiveness of the race.

Because of land restrictions on a section of the course Western States has a fixed field size and cannot just add a person at will. To add the 3rd place finisher would mean they would have to deny someone else a spot.

Thanks Ellie. My original question was that maybe all these categories and gender identifications actually did dictate the competitiveness of the race though?

While you keep repeating that it was "not complicated" and that only a few people were "confused" I can assure you that that was not the case!

The race organization itself appeared confused. Like others have already said there were multiple iterations of the final results (which got changed several times after the finish) as well as all the live tracking and race updates that clearly never listed Riley as being in the "Women's Top 10" during the race.

But this also goes back to the original question in the subject line of this thread: Can Gender Change Mid-race"

What are the implications of having a whole non-binary category that may or may not also include trans athletes? At what point can one of those athletes also compete in the women's or men's categories as well too then?

Riley might not appear in the final results as non-binary now, but all during the race they did, hence the confusion. and for more people than just Bitter.

Riley could have done what they were required to do AND the race could have inaccurately communicated this to the other runners.

It's not unreasonable that competitors might have reacted to the incorrect information they were given. It does seem unreasonable to expect competitors to independently research which race everyone is in, ignore the information that the race is providing them during the race, or both.

Nicole Bitter thought she was the 2nd place Women and was getting a Golden Ticket to Western States (until just after she crossed the finish line). This was because of the race updates/stats/tracking that never had Riley listed in the Top 10 Women during the race.

Was Riley even listed as a Female competitor on the start-list then? If that wasn't the case then how would other Women (and their pacers/crew) even know who they were competing against? Part of the issue here is that late in this race it was getting dark and so visual perception (to determine who one was racing against) would be hard to gauge. Also, I believe the 100km and shorter distance runners were also on the same trail loop by that time overlapping the 100-mile field?

In the future could a transgender athlete also compete in the Non-Binary category but then pick either a mens or Women's category when it comes to prize money or the Western States auto entry tickets?

Zach and Nicole Bitter talk about how things played out at the race in their podcast. I think they have a very balanced perspective and did a good job with this. They talk about the race updates what Nicole went through near the finish about 40-min in here: