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Re: Is it time to revisit the issue of testosterone for men and women in athletics? [SallyShortyPnts]
SallyShortyPnts wrote:
With Caster Semenya's dominance in the Olympic 800 meter run and Dutee Chand's appearance in the 100 meters, this is now a problem that is supposed to be adjudicated in 2017. I also have my woman's intuition about Katie Ledeckie's hairline that suspiciously looked more like my Father's than mine. In all three cases, it is clear that these women were born this way, leaving nothing as of now, that has to be "fixed".

However, Dutee Chand was responsible for Caster Semenya being able to return to top form after insufficient evidence was presented that endogenous testosterone was deemed a significant performance enhancer. This, I find patently laughable and Semenya's medal appears to prove my point. With elite-level athletics always selecting for performance, without some type of intervention, will women athletes mostly be represented by intersex individuals?

The reason Dutee Chand won her case with the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) is that men were not tested for upper levels of testosterone, while women were. Why not establish upper and lower limits for testosterone in both genders, X1-X10 for women and Y275-Y1075 for men? Then, if you are out of range on the low side, then exogenous testosterone brings you up to your competition The opposite, of course, would be used, as it was for Caster Semenya from 2011-2015.

What say you, Slowtwitch?


I think the obvious rebuttal to this general proposal and line of thought is that there are hundreds of factors that determine performance, many of which are congenital as well as unquantifiable, and we've selected a single one (age and birth sex aside) by which to categorize participants. The consensus among academicians in sport science is that elite athletes are born, not made. How many normalization tables are we prepared to generate in order for a competition to be considered "fair"?

Give an elite marathoner as much testosterone as you want; they're never going to be a competitive shot putter.

Edit: But I do agree that it's thought provoking and we should be prepared for similar discussions in the legislative world.

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Last edited by: domingjm: May 3, 19 14:01

Edit Log:

  • Post edited by domingjm (Dawson Saddle) on May 3, 19 8:43
  • Post edited by domingjm (Dawson Saddle) on May 3, 19 13:59
  • Post edited by domingjm (Dawson Saddle) on May 3, 19 14:01