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posted by martyb on Saturday April 28 2018, @10:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-testosterone-for-now...-but-in-100-years...? dept.

International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Sets New Limits On Testosterone Levels In Women

What exactly makes a woman? Track and field's world governing body thinks the answer has to do with levels of serum testosterone, at least when it comes to female runners competing in middle-distance races.

The International Association of Athletics Federation announced a new set of rules Thursday that will ban women who naturally produce higher-than-normal levels of testosterone from participating in races ranging from 400 meters to the mile, unless they agree to take medication. Athletes with the condition, called hyperandrogenism, would be eligible to compete at the international level only if they reduced blood testosterone levels through the use of hormonal contraceptives, including birth control pills. The rule will go into effect on Nov. 1.

"Our evidence and data show that testosterone, either naturally produced or artificially inserted into the body, provides significant performance advantages in female athletes," said IAAF President Sebastian Coe in a statement. "The revised rules are not about cheating, no athlete with a [difference of sexual development] has cheated, they are about levelling the playing field to ensure fair and meaningful competition in the sport of athletics where success is determined by talent, dedication and hard work rather than other contributing factors," he added.

The new stipulations are stricter than those established by the IAAF in 2011, which limited women's testosterone levels to 10 nanomoles per liter of blood. The new requirements reduce the limit by half to 5 nanomoles per liter. That is still far above levels in most women, including elite female athletes, whose levels range from 0.12 to 1.79 nanomoles per liter, states a 22-page IAAF document [auto-download PDF] defending the organization's decision. Meanwhile, the normal male range after puberty is much higher, from 7.7 to 29.4 nanomoles.

Previously, the Court of Arbitration for Sport struck down the IAAF's hyperandrogenism regulations in response to a challenge by sprinter Dutee Chand.

Related: The Caster Semenya Debate
The Olympics, Science and Intersex


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday April 28 2018, @09:14PM (3 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Saturday April 28 2018, @09:14PM (#673129)

    I don't have any links to provide in English but the female national soccer team has been beaten by fairly mediocre teenage male teams on so many occasions that they stopped playing vs them.

    Would you provide the links anyway? This sentence really stood out as informative.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday April 28 2018, @10:53PM (2 children)

    by looorg (578) on Saturday April 28 2018, @10:53PM (#673162)

    It might have been a bit of an overstatement or hyperbole on my part, I don't really know if they have stopped playing vs them. But there have been no news articles about the attempts that are newer then three years old. Also they are not complete random male muppets but they are boys teams vs the female national team. They probably play them cause they can't find teams of equivalent level female players. But still with that in mind it is probably fair to infer that a game vs the national male team would not be overly pretty or great. The news might be somewhat skewed tho since they probably don't report on how they win vs boys teams since victory over children is probably not something to brag about.

    This is from 2015, the female national team fielding the team they play with vs other nations get beaten 1-0 by a team of boys aged 16 belonging to the tier 2 male soccer club GAIS.
    https://www.dn.se/sport/gais-pojklag-gav-landslaget-en-bra-match/ [www.dn.se]
    https://www.svt.se/sport/fotboll/nyttig-match-mot-gais-p16/ [www.svt.se]

    This is from 2013, female national team play lost 3-0 to a boys 17 team belonging to the tier 1 male soccer club AIK.
    https://www.fotbollskanalen.se/dam/tv-damlandslaget-forlorade-mot-aiks-pojklag/ [fotbollskanalen.se]
    http://8sidor.se/sport/2013/01/sveriges-fotbollsdamer-forlorade-mot-pojklag/ [8sidor.se]

    A quick further search on the topic seem to indicate that this is a somewhat common training method for female teams all over the globe and the outcomes seem to be about the same. Australian, American (US) etc doing the same and the result being about the same.

    2016 Australian national team loses 7-0 against boys team.
    https://www.thedailystar.net/sports/australia-womens-natl-team-loses-u-16-boys-1230229 [thedailystar.net]
    https://www.dailywire.com/news/6072/australias-national-womens-soccer-team-lose-7-0-amanda-prestigiacomo [dailywire.com]

    This is just the few examples that some minor googling will provide. They apparently do this in preparation for international events. According to the female coach for the Swedish national team, that previously used to coach the US national team (Pia Sundhagen), they do this to work on techniques when playing vs superior teams and opponents. She acknowledges that they are the physically superior team but that there are good lessons involved with losing and playing vs a superior opponent. Sure one can say that it was training games or whatnot but they are fielding the same team they use to play vs other nations. Plus as noted these are teams of 16-17 year old boys. So while I said mediocre they are not complete muppets or anything but they are not professionals or men either.

    It wouldn't really surprise me if you can find this in other sports as well. You could probably even find it in boys vs men plays to where boys just bring peak physical condition to the table while the older men play on technique and it eventually might grind the "older" men down.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @11:25AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @11:25AM (#673346)

      Same thing with Esmee Visser, the current Olympic champion on the 5km speed skating event. She was still training with the regional male juniors in the season she participated in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @11:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @11:42AM (#673349)

      Same for tennis too. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/sports/tennis/28serena.html [nytimes.com]

      There are 128 men who compete in singles at the United States Open, but there are also a couple of dozen others whose job it is to play against the women. They are full-time professional practice partners.

      They are the traveling sparring partners to the top women players.

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2015/08/31/john-mcenroe-cant-beat-serena-williams-but-some-journeyman-pro-at-the-u-s-open-could/#5f75d832650a [forbes.com]

      Back in 1998 at the Australian Open, Serena and Venus Williams were doing what teenage girls do: stirring up trouble. They were watching the men practice and said offhandedly that they could beat a male pro in the top 200.

      The guy who was 200 on the ATP computer was a German journeyman named Karsten Braasch. His other claim to fame? Braasch forced the ATP to change the rules of the game and institute a rule prohibiting players from smoking on the court during changeovers.

      They found a practice court and Braasch took on both of the Williams sisters in quick succession. He beat Serena 6-1. And then beat Venus 6-2.

      FWIW women seem pretty good at ten pin bowling.

      As for women with high testosterone, if too many women think it's so unfair then perhaps they should have a separate league for high testosterone women as suggested by someone else here. BUT if you look at the different body types of World/Olympics class people, we are selecting for "freaks" anyway - different height etc, so why not different testosterone? See: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/howard-schatz-photos-women-professional-athletes_n_4297902.html [huffingtonpost.com]
      https://www.boredpanda.com/athlete-body-types-comparison-howard-schatz/ [boredpanda.com]
      https://ninamatsumoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/athletes16.jpg [wordpress.com]

      By the way, a relative of mine proposed that there be a different league for shorter players for basketball. Doubt that'll ever happen though.