IOC praise Hubbard

We can't ask the athletes who have trained all their life for this one shot to waste it like that.

That’s the dilemma isn’t it @TheSlayer

It’s those individual women who have to take this shit.

I’m old enough to remember the 70s and 80s and the controversies over the East German women athletes who were ‘doped’ with testosterone. I remember an Australian swimmer (might have been the great and wonderful Shane Gould) saying that you saw and heard them in the locker rooms, and they looked very masculine, sounded very masculine, but you had to swim against them.

Once again, 40 years later, women are on the firing lane.

Laurel Hubbard KNOWS they are not and never will be an actual woman. Transwomen ok. But not a woman.

So Laurel Hubbard is a woman, is competing under the rules of her federation and we have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity in actually competing and qualifying for the Games.

No, Laurel Hubbard is not a woman and no we don't have to pay tribute to a fucking cheat.

Well the IOC are waiting until after the Olympics to change the rules. This support for Hubbard is an indicator of which way the changes will go.

Surely when we start getting top male athletes, rather than mediocre ones, becoming transwomen, there will no longer be such a thing as women's sports anyway.

The question needs to be asked, why isn't the IOC doing more to ensure transmen are at the Olympics? Surely it's transphobic to leave out an entire group of competitors?

Wouldn't it be great to see Budgett unceremoniously kicked out of his job and replaced by a woman, even better if she was someone that had somehow 'cheated' her way to get there.

Even better if that 'woman' happened to be biologically male. All for 'inclusivity', you see. Wonder how budgett would feel.

Funnily enough I can't see it happening, can you.

Haiku:

(En)titled Man

Living his best life.
Trampling on the dreams of women
The man is a cheat.

I'm sure Budgett, and all the other male officials of the IOC, have limitless honesty and integrity in their role. I know other organisations which had such power were found out eventually to have corrupt officials who were compromised by money and bribes, like Fifa.

I can be assured by the fact that the IOC (and Ritchie Budget) left no stone unturned in the expansive and wide amount of peer reviewed, scientific papers which showed that there was no physical, biological or performance difference in males who identified as women, and women. I am touched by their principled way they take uphold responsibility for the interests of fairness and safety of women.

I suppose that women won't be doped by their nations anymore. They can just send an actual male in now. And they are brave and laudable for doing it.

I will have all cheating sportspeople down as brave now. Lance Armstrong had cancer you know. David Walsh should have extended his kindness and understanding to Armstrong instead of hounding him. The Tour de France cyclist actually had a life threatening illness. He could have died. Also, at least Walsh doesn't have to accuse someone who is taking synthetic testosterone as being a cheat. The male levels of testosterone in a male body is all natural. Not natural for women against whom such people are competing, but it would appear that Walsh is not unhappy for women to have to compete against such opposition. It doesn't appear to me that the IOC officials or sports commentators (most male as well) are too troubled by this either, or about fairness or safety being removed for women.

The Guardian is posting twaddle now

Some days it's too much. Too too much.

I had some ribbons to tie. I'm going to use the accompanying message 'Laurel Hubbard is a CHEAT'.

"I think Hubbard will deliberately lose."

Never. But Hubbard is not quite good enough to win. A) Never was a top male anyway and B) is old now. If Hubbard had done this 10 years ago probably would have won.

Is he still the same one that back when they decided to allow transwomen said "we know they have an advantage but let's see what the politics will end up as", or something along those lines.

Dirtbag.

So, it would be fine for all the women taking part to simulate a male puberty, too, by taking testosterone through their teens? They could stop long enough in advance to meet the regulations.

If gender-beliefs are more important than physical sex for l determining in which category the athlete competes, then why shouldn't a transman meet the standards applied to transwomen in order to compete among females?

And while Budgett appeared to accept that Hubbard had an advantage from going through male puberty, he also stressed that inclusivity was an important factor too.

Absolutely, there just aren’t enough white, middle aged, biological males, sons of multi millionaires competing at the Olympics. Just be kind everybody & let them compete in the women’s events so they can go home with medals that they couldn’t legitimately win when they competed in the men’s events.

Words fail me. Some days I honestly can’t take it anymore.

I think Hubbard will deliberately lose.

Did any of you see the mixed medley swimming relay?

Anyone who saw that can't possibly ever think that having male competitors in female sport is fair.

Is a self identified trans man (with uterus and acceptable testosterone) allowed to compete in women's sport? Is there a rule "must claim to be female", that seems to be the actual rule to be fair.

No such rule. All trans athletes competing in Tokyo are competing in the female category. As long as transmen are not taking testosterone ,they are free to participate in the female category as they all have female bodies. Male bodied athletes can compete in the female category , if they lower their testosterone for a year to a level 10 times higher than the average female leve,l in eg weightlifting, and 5 times the average level in athletics.

And while Budgett appeared to accept that Hubbard had an advantage from going through male puberty, he also stressed that inclusivity was an important factor too.

I have a condition that means that I can't lift heavy weights, but I'd like to be included too

One reason why few Olympic records are being broken in swimming, where finals are taking place in evening rather than the morning (or vv. I am afraid I am not the sports mad person in our household.)

It is the other way round - swimmers did have notice and have been able to adapt training to try and account for the morning finals, but it still makes a difference - slower times and more unpredictable.

Precedent was set in Beijing when Phelps was expected to get 8 golds and the finals schedule was built around US peak evening viewing times.

Budgett appeared to accept that Hubbard had an advantage from going through male puberty

So, it would be fine for all the women taking part to simulate a male puberty, too, by taking testosterone through their teens? They could stop long enough in advance to meet the regulations.

(Not seriously suggesting this as a plan, but the total absence of logic maddens me.)

Absolutely incredible.

If the IOC asked the public in every country competing today, they’d find almost nobody agrees that TWAW. Almost nobody.

Who or what is making them take this position, in direct contravention of the views of almost the entire world?

And while Budgett appeared to accept that Hubbard had an advantage from going through male puberty, he also stressed that inclusivity was an important factor too.

Oh yeaaaaaah, great inclusivity.

By including a potential 0.1% of the population, they're excluding a potential 51% of the population.

Soooooooo inclusive.

The Americans wield huge influence via the money they put in for things like TV rights and sponsorship.

There is very real unhappiness across Europe about the limited TV rights national broadcasters have been able to obtain, and frustration from sports fans about the poor quality of the coverage and commentary from the Discovery channel owned Eurosports. (Clare Balding and the BBC team are in Salford whilst US has been able to flood Tokyo with commentators.) The point of the Olympics is to give minority sports their place in the spotlight, yet fans of these sports have not been able to watch. There is also suspicion that the US have influenced the timing of popular events to best fit with US time zones, leaving others to compete at weird hours or the midday sun. One reason why few Olympic records are being broken in swimming, where finals are taking place in evening rather than the morning (or vv. I am afraid I am not the sports mad person in our household.)

An American push on the acceptance of gender theory is another issue. I wonder whether there is much push back from nations such as China or Russia, who both have some history of doping and who may not mind the blurring of the rules.

The end result of the US money buying influence is a dilution of the Olympic ideal. Though also an increase in frustration elsewhere at the way the US push their cultural imperialism.

That would be interesting explaining how a man won a women's event.