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posted by janrinok on Monday August 01 2016, @11:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the did-you-just-assume-my-gender? dept.

In The Guardian there is a discussion on the participation of transgender people in the Olympic Games, primarily looking at Caster Semenya. Semenya, a South African middle-distance runner, was subjected to gender testing in 2009, but has been cleared to participate in the Olympic Games beginning in a few days time.

"It's a ticking timebomb," Daniel Mothowagae says quietly on a winter's night in Johannesburg as he anticipates the furore that is likely to explode when Caster Semenya runs in the Olympic Games. Apart from being described by many athletics specialists as an almost certain winner of the women's 800m in Rio, Semenya will suffer again as she is made to personify the complex issues surrounding sex verification in sport."

"The debate around hyperandrogenism is as poignant as it is thorny. In simplistic summary it asks us to decide whose rights need to be protected most. Is it the small minority of women whose exceedingly high testosterone levels, which their bodies produce naturally, categorise them as intersex athletes? Should their human rights be ring-fenced so that, as is the case now following an overturned legal ruling, they are free to compete as women without being forced to take medication that suppresses their testosterone? Or should the overwhelming majority of female athletes be protected – so they are not disadvantaged unfairly against faster and stronger intersex competitors?"

""She is proof of the benefit of testosterone to intersex athletes," Tucker argues. "Having had the restriction removed she is now about six seconds faster than she had been the last two years.""

"The Cas panel defined the crucial factor as being whether intersex athletes would have sufficient advantages to outweigh any female characteristics and make them comparable to male-performance levels. "

"Three months ago Tucker conducted a fascinating interview with Joanna Harper – who describes herself as "a scientist first, an athlete second and a transgender person third." Harper made the startling claim that we might see "an all-intersex podium in the 800 in Rio and I wouldn't be surprised to see as many as five intersex women in the eight-person final.""


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  • (Score: 3, Offtopic) by VLM on Tuesday August 02 2016, @12:09PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 02 2016, @12:09PM (#383080)

    Ops probably confused by eliteness level.

    You're talking about the top elite 0.00001% of competitors in the whole world. I'd say Army Soldiers are merely in the top 10% of fitness and the numbers at that level are incredibly dismal

    http://www.military.com/military-fitness/army-fitness-requirements/army-pft-two-mile-run-score-chart [military.com]

    A dude who just barely passes the 2-mile run at AIT, just barely, would be a 100%+ score for a woman. A woman who just barely passes at basic would result in a score of 8 (out of 100) if she was he.

    Another way to look at it is the girls run times go to a twelve minute mile. I'm old and out of shape and apparently in 2016 I can outrun a significant fraction of teenage girls. I can out speed-walk some teenage girls. With a hiking pack in regular clothes, when sufficiently motivated by weather or whatever, an old man like me can out hike at least some girls who are trying to run.

    For non-military people you need a 50 in each event to graduate basic, and a 60 in each event to graduate AIT and stay in the service. You'll get kicked out after two below 60s. Also in your promotion packet for E-5 and above ranks (sgt, etc) each PT point counts the same as a college credit for your total point score (there's about a zillion other things that can earn you promotion points)

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday August 02 2016, @06:04PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday August 02 2016, @06:04PM (#383235) Journal

    Ops probably confused by eliteness level.
     
    Considering we're in a thread about the Olympics and he responded to a direct quote, no, I think someone else is confused.