Does anyone know the best way to contact the IOC? I would like to send them a letter touching on the following points:
As an amateur female weightlifter I know how much the female body effects training. The fact is we are only just now starting to learn the differences between mens and womens bodies due to women being excluded from sports, science, and sports science for so long.
One major way is that women are not able to train on the same schedule as men. Male athletes (including transwomen) have relatively consistent hormone levels and are able to undertake basically the same training routine week after week. Fertile female athletes (even those on hormonal birth control) experience significant natural fluctuations in their hormone levels at each point in their cycle. Some days women are stronger and recover faster, some days they are weaker and recover slower. Some days they need more food intake, some days they need less. Some days the body runs better on carbs, some days it runs better on fat. This is my own experience is backed by modern science. The effect of this is that to train optimally women must match their training and their food intake to their cycle, and the idea that it can be replicated by requiring a male to have a certain limit to their testosterone is absurd, degrading and offensive. It's reminicent of the ancient assumption that women are merely smaller, weaker men.
Another major impact on weightlifting especially is that women have to have a higher body fat % than men just to be alive (specifically, about 10 percentage points higher). Male athletes can safely achieve 2% body fat, but that would be dangerous and unhealthy for any female athlete to attempt. This is due to the fundamental differences in body structure and it is my understanding that it is not significantly influenced by hormone levels.
What this means is that all other things being equal, an 80 kg man will have about 8kg more lean muscle mass than an 80kg woman due to inescapable physiological differences. This obviously gives the male an advantage in a mixed-sex competition divided by weight class. In a fair mixed-sex competition 80kg male athletes should be competing against 90kg female athletes so that the athletes are hypothetically able to achieve similar muscle mass.
I was deeply shocked and outraged to see a male athlete competing in a womens competition in the commonwealth games due to them following the IOC guidelines on this topic. As I'm sure you know the women's division was only introduced to the olympics in the year 2000 and to the games in 2002, while male athletes have been able to compete in weightlifting since the 1950s. There have been a total of just 4 olympic games where it was even allowed for a woman to win a gold medal in weightlifting, so I'm sure you can understand why I find the idea of the 5th olympic games awarding medals from the women's division to male athletes to be outrageous.
In addition, hormone altering medications carry significant risks and it is irresponsible for the IOC to encourage trans and gender variant athletes to take these medications in order to meet an arbitrarily set limit, when they might otherwise find those medications unnecessary.
Equality and inclusion is not naturally a zero-sum game, though it has been made into one due to policies like the current IOC gender policy.
When the womens competition was introduced at the 2000 olympics, you did not replace the mens team with the womens. You added a womens team. However now when attempting to include gender variant athletes you have effectively removed the womens division and replaced it with one segregated by hormones rather than sex, allowing for the possibility that the women's gold medals can be awarded to men. This is a massive step backwards for equality and inclusion.
If the IOC truly wants to be inclusive they must protect the right of women to compete fairly against other women. Women are defined as the females of the human species, which is determined by chromosomes, gonads, and gametes. There is no level of strength or hormones that a woman can naturally achieve to make her no longer qualify as a woman, and there is no level of hormones or weakness that a man can achieve to make him able to qualify as a women. The current policy implies that that is the case, however that is a belief based in sexism not science, reality, or fairness.
The IOC could simply add a division for trans, gender variant, and intersex athletes who are unable or unwilling to compete against their sex for whatever reason. That could be further divided into hormone classes just as other competitions divide into weight classes, allowing all trans, gender diverse, and intersex people to be included. I suggest you approach those communities about how best to include them.
In these turbulent political times I hope the IOC can lead the way towards true progression and inclusion, where increasing rights and recognition for one group need not come at any cost to another disadvantaged group.