Caster Semenya Loses Appeal

It certainly is "excellent news". Now all those white, feminine looking women who find breaking 2:00 hard work will be able to win medals. And the corporate giants who in reality control our sport will be able to market them better and sell more shoes!

Everyone is happy! (Except, of course, the individual who can no longer compete in the sport she loves and happens to be rather good at.)

I don't understand why they said that she can compete in other events.

Why did they say she only has to reduce her T levels to compete in the 400m thru Mile?

Can anyone explain?

AdiosMom wrote:

Do you really need to take the piss like that? Pretty heavy handed.

Yeah, we're happy to see women's sport protected, but I really sympathies a lot with Caster, she's been put through a lot in the past ten years.

I really doubt this is the end of this issue, it's just getting started. There are still many aspects that need to be addressed.

Don’t feel too sad for Caster. She stayed in the game and profited handsomely at the expense of other women’s glory, fame and fortune.

I feel angry about the theft that has taken place. Put yourself in the shoes of the many women runners that have dedicated their lives to competing clean and at the highest level. For them to have put themselves on the line fully knowing the competition was rigged against them. Feel sad for them. They are the vast majority and they are the ones who have lost and suffered the most. Looking back at this period of women’s sport history is very very sad indeed.

I’m glad that they ruled this way, but why didn’t they apply it to the 5000? High testosterone would obviously help there too.

Not enough data, unfortunately. CAS even questioned the data for the 1500.

The irony here is that the hermaphrodites can still race the 100 and 200 with all their testo, although those are likely the events where testo is most important.

But nevertheless, a good start! Kudos to IAAF and CAS.

Next steps: lower that testo limit to a normal female limit, and extend the rule to all distances.

Trolling forecast wrote:

The forecast is for a tsunami of trolling and as many people as possible referring to Caster as 'he' and/or saying 'internal testes' which some folks seem to get some kind of perverse kick out of. Normal decent people - time to take (yet another) break from this wretched place.

^^^ This.

It'll be interesting to see what LetsRun people have to say when:

(1) They realize the cost associated with testing everyone in the "restricted events;"

(2) Some Coe-level genius says something like, "We can tell just by looking at them;"

(3) A traditionally-feminine blond woman tests above the acceptable levels.

Laura Muir Fan wrote:

Great news!

Does this mean Laura can appeal to get her 2017 World Championships 1,500m Bronze medal awarded?

Can Melissa Bishop get her Olympic Gold? I hope so.

wejo wrote:

agip wrote:

Sad for Caster but good overall for women's running.

Does this mean Caster can run the 1500 this year?

"While the IAAF rule applies to the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter events — Semenya’s primary races — the CAS judges say the IAAF should not yet apply the rules to the 1,500."

Yes she can run the 5,000 without lowering testosterone.

I think a lot of people on here are having the same reaction. Sad ruling for Semenya but necessary won for women's sport. And the ruling appears to confirm Semenya is 46 XY.

A bit surprised the IAAF won as their initial study was completely botched and the human emotional angle is to let an athlete like Semenya compete in what she wants to compete in.

Do you really not know the difference between won and one?

milermb wrote:

It certainly is "excellent news". Now all those white, feminine looking women who find breaking 2:00 hard work will be able to win medals. And the corporate giants who in reality control our sport will be able to market them better and sell more shoes!

Everyone is happy! (Except, of course, the individual who can no longer compete in the sport she loves and happens to be rather good at.)

no he can this is the problem with liberals dont care about the female athletes that are up against a male

Requiring someone to take drugs to compete is wrong. Having an intersex person compete against females is wrong. Allow the intersex person to choose either the male or female race to run in and award the intersex winner and male/female winner (along with other podium finishers of course). This doesn't have to be that complicated.

They should reset all the records from 400 to the 1500 because it's possible they were all set by DSD athletes and they are changing who qualifies to compete in those events

If a female doesn't have testes and her natural testosterone is above the top threshold, are they going to have to take hormone therapy?

You all have such small and hateful opinions. I don't see how letting Caster Semenya and other women like her compete in their natural state is any different than the naturally tall basketball players in the NBA or WNBA, the naturally petite gymnasts, naturally fast or strong NFL players, etc. This is the way she was born, and this is the way she was created. It is her gift and we are not letting her use it. She isn't taking artificial testosterone and she isn't doping. She has done nothing wrong, and we are punishing her because of the way she was born. Please just take a step back and think about that. Think about what changing her natural hormone balance could mean for her long-term health and well-being.

Hopefully we can all agree that we shouldn't discriminate based on gender differences in society at large, but allowing Semenya to compete with women when her hormones are biologically different from almost all other women was damaging to the integrity of women's athletics. Expect Semenya to move up to the 5000 where the rules don't apply. It will probably only take a year or 2 for her to compete with the best of the best women at that distance given her biological advantage.

Good, it's silly that the "woman" who is the most manly always wins. What does this say about women's sports really ?

Sprintgeezer wrote:

“Caster Semenya Loses Appeal”

—As though he ever had any.

Caster Semenya is not a man, and it is hateful and ignorant to say so. Caster Semenya is a woman with different hormone levels. She is a woman who does not conform to your standards of beauty, who looks different from the women you are used to seeing. That does not give you the right to be a bully.

Never been called a a"liberal" before. Actually quite insulted by this description, I consider myself a rock solid Socialist, class struggle an' all that!

Seriously, there must be hundreds of thousands of people biologically similar to Semenya in the world. She is the only one of them who has won gold medals. Why/ Because she has trained seriously and methodically for years to get to the level she is currently at. If it was clear that she did very little or no training and simply turned up at the big races, laced on a pair of spikes and won the race without trying then you could say she is destroying the sport. But that's not what has happened over the last decade or so. She has worked for her success- maybe with some genetic advantages y definition great athletes are exceptional physical specimens!

...and corporate sponsorship of track and field goes away... the end.

If people get trashed for not saying that Caitlyn Jenner is a woman. Imagine the support that Caster will have. She is an actual woman, who says that she identifies as a woman. Let’s see the tsunami of crowd support against this decision.

Corporate sponsors of track and field are surely getting a tremendous amount of pressure to stop their sponsorship of track and field today.

Angelo Mysterioso wrote:

I don't understand why they said that she can compete in other events.

Why did they say she only has to reduce her T levels to compete in the 400m thru Mile?

Can anyone explain?

Makes no sense. It should be in all events. My suspicion is that for some reason, they think that the added testosterone confers no benefit while training and competing at longer distances. Utter BS, I'd love to see the scientific studies that support that decision. But at least they had the sense to limit it at the mile or below.

Semenya defender wrote:

You all have such small and hateful opinions. I don't see how letting Caster Semenya and other women like her compete in their natural state is any different than the naturally tall basketball players in the NBA or WNBA, the naturally petite gymnasts, naturally fast or strong NFL players, etc. This is the way she was born, and this is the way she was created. It is her gift and we are not letting her use it. She isn't taking artificial testosterone and she isn't doping. She has done nothing wrong, and we are punishing her because of the way she was born. Please just take a step back and think about that. Think about what changing her natural hormone balance could mean for her long-term health and well-being.

Her "gift" that you refer to is not strength, height, speed or agility - those genderless traits you refer to - but that she possesses testes. So do I. By your argument, I, too, should be allowed to compete in women's sport. Well, of course - some like me now are. And people like you have no problem with that. The irony is that you think you are standing up for the rights and interests of women.