Because it's different for women. What if she improved from 1:55 to 1:49? If you're talking about a guy, that improvement possibly is fairly standard. If a woman was to do that, that's something quite different ! You can't compare times directly like that, especially at an elite level.
Rational
the dude with the funny hat wrote:
All this discussion is fine, but in the end they will do the gender test and that will sort it out. It is just like trying to decide who is eligible to be champion of a particular age group or weight class. They verify the person's age or weight, and then take it from there.
There may be people who are 39 years, 360 days old wanting to go for a master's record. They're not allowed in. The guy born one week earlier is.
There may be somebody who weighs 120.2 lbs. wanting to wrestle in the under-120 weight class. He's not and the guy who weights 119.9 lbs. is.
And in fact, the master's runner who is 40 years and 2 days old is often the one best positioned to set the world record, just like the wrestler who is 0.1 lbs under the weight limit is best positioned to be world champion.
What is bothering people about all of this is, being women's world champion has never been thought to be a matter of being as close to male as possible. In some senses it is, ie a girl with huge breasts is never going to be world champ in a marathon event. But the top female athletes don't necessarily look male by any means just because they have relatively small breasts and narrow hips; they still have lots of other feminine features. Until Semenya came along. Arguably Mutola also. Maybe others, I don't know.
The bottom line is: nobody criticizes the 119.9 lb wrestler for choosing to compete in the lower weight class. He steps on the scale, gets his weight, and then registers for the tournament accordingly. Semenya will do the analogous thing. The fact this was not handled before Semenya entered the IAAF champs is the fault of the IAAF. In essence they forgot to bring the metaphorical 'scale.' It would have been polite and classy of SAA to call it to their attention, but it's not the former's responsibility.
Men are modified women. The "Y" modifies material in the "X". Are these the only characteristics that differentiate men and women? No. There are '00s. Not all male characteristics reside on the "Y" chromosome. All women have some male characteristics. No man has all the characteristic male modifications.
Caster has many of the *outward* characteristics of a man. But she also has many female ones.
We *may* be in ambiguous territory. I say may, because Caster might be as much a woman as all the women on the college rugby team. They look rough, are big, broad, and in some cases hirsute. But they are very female in behavior and appearance in a 3D encounter.
You only live once! wrote:
No, it would be equivelant of a guy going from 1:57 to 150 or so. If we are going to cheat, cheat honestly on this.
actually, if you look at WAVA AG% a 17 year old girl running 2:08 one year and then being an 18 year old running 1:55 the next is the equivalent of a 17 year old boy running 1:55 and then being an 18 year old running 1:43 the next. Sorry, that doesn't happen.
LOL at people thinking 1:55 its 'normal' for a 18 year old girl having ran 2:07 last year.
remember katrochvilova's record shouldt be beaten or even approach in 20 years more at least since it came from a blatant doping offence (she has 47.99 in a mostly anaerobic event like 400 as well come on!)
What if she passes the gender test?
Then we'll know they're lying.