Hiltz had her body surgically altered, removing nonessential parts. Should this be allowed in racing?

I noticed watching the paralympics once that the 1-armed 800 guys looked like they had it pretty easy. An arm weighs about 10 pounds. If you've run 800 you know what a huge difference 10 pounds can make. It may be a bit awkward with an arm missing, but I doubt that cancels out the advantage.

For that matter, I'm not sure if it should even be a paralympic event, as it seems to enhance rather than reduce their ability.

If Sha'carri can race with her surgically altered chest, I don't see why Nikki can't.

Do we know for sure that Hiltz had surgery? Or is that just a guess?

You moron. I suppose you think you would run faster with no arms? Oh my…

Nikki let the world know today that she had chest surgery about a year ago. Brave of Nikki

It's rumored siffan hassan did the same several years ago. I'd argue the reason for her procedure was more performance oriented then Nikki's

you're a jerk, with nothing but a jerk argument, but for what it's worth, I think I'd have considerably more endurance if I were 20 lbs lighter, and my legs just as strong as now.

And in an endurance-oriented event like 800, yes that's faster.

Anyone with more than a couple brain cells can see this isn't about a 100m dash

Yes, Nikki did a long Instagram post about it today, including photos in the hospital bed, that they did the “top surgery” a month after the Olympics, on September 13, 2024.

Why? Doesn't she say she feels like a woman some days? You'd think she'd still want her boobs on those days.

I'm going to require registration to talk about this topic moving forward. Please be kind.

From an intellectual standpoint, it's actually an interesting thought process. I think many people would say, "Of course. Where do you draw the line? I mean people shave in swimming (of course that's not permanent0."

I don't see why you'd ban it unless it's found out that it's a huge performance enhancer and how would you ever run a study on it?

I mean imagine track was the most popular sport in the world and first place gets $100 million and some surgery was worth several seconds in the 1500. You wouldn't want to basically force the top athletes to have to choose. Do I want a shot at Olympic glory or do I want to keep my natural body?

It's the same argument whenever someone says, "We can't stop people from doping. We should just allow it." I say, "Absolutely not as you'll destroy women's athletics. You'll basically force women to choose - do I want to take so many steroids I basically become man or do I want to suck at track and field."

But since Hiltz already did it when it was legal, I've got zero problem with it.

Any physicists on here. How much of an edge if any does it make theoretically?

Suzy Favor Hamilton had a reduction in 1993. Be interesting to hear those upset about Nikki if they believe Suzy "cheated" as well?

si.com

My Secret Life: How I went from Olympic athlete to high-priced escort

How did Suzy Favor Hamilton go from running in the Olympics to working as an escort in Las Vegas? The answers lie in a troubled family past, the competitiveness of an elite athlete and an undiagnosed mental illness.

Link:www.si.com/olympics/2015/09/09/suzy-fa...

What if a bigger chest was causing back pain? Would it be justified for removal then?

Personally i think this falls under the "who TF cares?" category.

Are sports bras peds? Performance enhancing devices?

Ban them i say.

That British sprinter ran with free nads. The ladies loved it.

Surgical removal is a common treatment for breast cancer. Should that result in a ban from competition?

It seems like we've established quite quickly here that it's acceptable from a performance standpoint (unless somebody can go out and prove that top surgery boosts performance more than, say, super shoes or bicarb which are currently acceptable thresholds). So, I'll just add that I'm very happy to see that Nikki received the gender-affirming care they were seeking last year and that they seem very happy in their own body based on that IG post.

Why would it take a huge advantage to make it unfair? Wouldn’t ANY advantage gained through unnatural means be unfair? Also, wouldn’t “gender affirming care” that converts your body into the opposite sex (in any way) be walking the line?

And finally, there’s no doubt that removing nonessential body parts would make a runner faster. I’m guessing it wouldn’t be difficult to shed at least 10lbs in such parts. Breasts, ears, thumbs(if not other fingers), uterus, gall bladder, appendix, probably a few others you’d be fine without.

Chat GPT estimated a 1-2 second advantage over 1500m based on the breasts weighing about 1lb combined, take that for what it's worth. To me this falls under the same category as L-Carnitine or Ozempic use in athletes i.e. a completely unnatural reduction in fat. Add in the fact that part of the reason females have their own category is because of 'disadvantages' like uneven weight distribution, higher body fat, wider hips etc. and it seems like this is a very grim road to introduce to athletics, even inadvertently. Ask Jakob whether he'd prefer to run with or without moobs and the answer is pretty obvious- they reduce aerodynamics and performance.

I suppose the natural question is where do you draw the line? Should well-endowed female athletes serious about medals go in for surgery if it's now allowed? If not why not? If Nikki found it 'dysphoric' to have wide hips and so received surgery to completely alter her hip ratio and q angle, which then provided another favourable effect on her running, would she have then crossed a line? Why is it wrong to take L-carnitine infusions to reduce body fat but it's ok in this case to surgically remove fat deposits?

When it comes to amputations/surgeries that are beneficial for running performance, I think the only exceptions should be for medically necessary surgeries, which this wasn't.

They didn’t have particularly large breasts to begin with. Considering we didn’t even notice until they made the announcement, I don’t think this is going to provide nikki with any athletic benefit. Non-story