To think that this is the end of women's athletics?

[fidel1ne]

And women's international sport generally?

Transgender competitors will be allowed to compete as the gender of their choosing pre-operatively and after just one year of hormone treatment.

[fidel1ne]

Sorry - forgot the link;

www.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2015-11_ioc_consensus_meeting_on_sex_reassignment_and_hyperandrogenism-en.pdf

[Alibabsandthe40Musketeers]

YANBU, I think it's awful.

Men who cannot make the grade competing as men now have a second bite at the cherry, leaving actual women out in the cold.

Horrible.

[honeysucklejasmine]

YANBU.

I don't believe that a bunch of male athletes are going to start taking oestrogen to win medals, but I do think that YANBU nonetheless.

[fidel1ne]

Exactly Ali. I actually find it very worrying.

I've said 'international' but of course national bodies will follow suit and it just feels like a dangerous precedent for wider society, somehow.

I'm really very shocked.

[SurferJet]

YANBU - I'm absolutely shocked at this.

[fidel1ne]

I don't believe that a bunch of male athletes are going to start taking oestrogen to win medals

A insanely ambitious handful might (competitors can 'only' switch genders every 4 years, apparently), but even if they don't, transwomen have just been given a huge advantage over women in sport and athletics which is hard to justify, I think.

[fidel1ne]

An insanely.. (obviously )

[Alibabsandthe40Musketeers]

honey you say that, but there having been situations in various sports already where pre-op transwomen have been allowed to compete as female. And they are basically men - tall, with deep set tendons that give them better strength when they are at full stretch and accommodate larger muscles. Pelvis better constructed for running because of not having to take a female reproductive system into account. So so many advantages, which are in no way wiped out by taking hormones for a year.

[fidel1ne]

Maybe creating a group of medal-winning, 'role-model' trans-sexuals is part of the appeal of the idea?

[BombadierFritz]

Iran are going to do well next olympics. Bet a few other countries wont have any qualms either about forcing males to take hormone treatment.

[honeysucklejasmine]

I don't disagree with you, it is blatantly unfair. It shouldn't be allowed. What I mean is, athletes who are transwomen will dominate sport, rather than men thinking "oh, what a good idea" and exploiting it to their gain.

At least, I hope. I may be hopelessly naïve.

I wonder... If men can now compete in women's sport... Will it be taken more seriously?

[mudandmayhem01]

There is a massive advantage in having been through a male puberty that will never be completely reversed by surgery or hormone treatment. Also if women from East Germany were willing/ coerced into talking male hormones to win medals, why wont men do the same.The pressure on young athletes from poor countries to use athletics as a way out of poverty for themselves and their families is immense.

[fidel1ne]

Quite Bombadier The GDR was ahead of the times, apparently.

It's such a blatantly political decision (it makes no sense in sporting or medical terms). I thought the Olympic movement were supposed to be beyond politics?

They've certainly held out long and hard against complete gender equality.

[fidel1ne]

Oh both I think honeysuckle. A general massive advantage for M-Fs and opportunistic transitions.

World's gawn mad

[TheFallenMadonna]

I don't know much about endocrinology. A quick google puts the maximum allowed serum testosterone at inside the reference range for men (although at the lower end) and considerably outside the reference range for women.

[Behooven]

Utterly ridiculous

[VagueIdeas]

YANBU.

No amount of hormone treatment could reverse the physical advantage that a male bodied athlete would have.

[fidel1ne]

That being the case (awful in itself), Madonna, won't doping rules become hard to justify too?

[Viviennemary]

I agree it's a mad idea. But the whole transgender thing doesn't make any sense to me.

[IamTheWhoreofBabylon]

Perhaps the WEP will take this up
Oh wait

[GarlicBake]

Good lord, Fallen I've just checked that.

"2. The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition"
(Olympics)

"Reference ranges:
Male: 10 – 30 nmol/L
Female: 0.7 – 2.8 nmol/L"
(NHS)

Some NHS trusts will not offer testosterone treatment to male men with 9 nmol/L!

Who the fuck authorised this?

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

I really think women have to stand up for themselves here, threaten a boycott of the olympics or something. It is absolutely ludicrous.

[honeysucklejasmine]

Those ranges are OUTRAGEOUS!

[fidel1ne]

Agree Tinkly.

[RufusTheReindeer]

I think its dreadful

I can see a complete erasure of womens sporting achievements on the horizon

It makes me very sad, and most people wont give a shit that the fastest woman was born and socialised as a man...they will just see a "womans" name at the top of the table

And then it will be that "some women are as fast as men...they may as well race together as there is barely any diference"

That was just an example obviously, and hopefully on the pessamistic side