Transgender athletes should not have to lower testosterone to compete, IOC says as it changes guidelines

In a funny way I think that this is good. Right now there is the whole “but they have to reduce their testosterone” crap is if having testosterone only 10 times higher than the average women takes away all the advantages of a male body, male lungs, going through male puberty, male height and male muscle structure.

But now that is all gone. It is what everyone can see - men can compete in women’s categories if they want.

I am biased though - my dd (who podiums at nationals at her sport) is 11. I need all this to blow up before she reaches mid teens and it really affects her. I have time. It is the current 18 year olds who are going to be screwed by this.

On the bright side - dh was a junior international at one sport. He also took up a second one during lockdown and now is on a (recreational) team with a pro woman. Who would have thought a 45 year old with middle age spread could become a double Olympian! In two completely unrelated sports! And I’m not even joking.

So Princess Anne is on the list? And is Sebastian Coe, what's happened to him?

Time for these persons to stand up and be counted.

You know, I usually take my time to compose my posts, always try to be fair and reasonably polite and temperate in my language, the odd bit of snark notwithstanding.

But this decision doesn’t deserve that. It doesn’t deserve my time, effort or energy. Fuck off, IOC, you cowardly, weasly misogynist dick pandering shitbags. On your watch, we will now have men’s sport, and sport for male bodied misogynists and extremely exceptional women.

Thanks a fucking bunch.

I found my way to this issue through sport. It’s my foundational reason for dissenting from gender ideology orthodoxy. I will never give up. And neither will millions of other women.

Do the IOC publish each members voting record or comments in debates? so that we know which members decided to erase women's sport?

Ross Tucker podcast is out ON the IOC’s transgender guidelines. “First reactions”.

twitter.com/Scienceofsport/status/1461625636146003971

play.acast.com/s/realscienceofsport/s3-e27-why-the-iocs-recent-guidelines-on-transgender-athlete

Let's not forget the huge amounts of money in elite sport. Now all up for grabs.

Can we have some details please on the precise individuals who wrote and signed off on this decision? Not let them hide behind the IOC banner.

Which men (and hopefully no women were involved in the removal of other women's rights) were involved in this decision?

Why is there not more media coverage? I just don’t get it?

The trouble is the decision had been made in an opaque way, by an organisation that is totally opaque. I have my suspicions why this is the case but as it’s based on nothing concrete I’ll keep schtum.

Just listened to the Science of Sport podcast, and it actually has made me want to cry. I can’t believe the injustice, and how helpless women are in these situations. You would think there would be a way to appeal the decision.

It’s disappointing there’s been nothing in the Times about this

When is the media going to join the dots and call out the institutional misogyny in sport

they are complicit in it. Look at the Sunday Times sports section - 24 pages and half a page to a page about womens' sport.

The Guardian is no better.

Ps Can I have Saudi in the sweepstake, (or any other benighted mysongynistic patriarchal Middle Eastern Middle Ages mindset country). They have never liked having to produce a token woman to make up the mixed teams the IOC asks for, now they don’t have to and will probably be fielding their largest ever Olympic team in Paris.

RIP Women’s Sport.

Thank you for all the enjoyment and excitement you have given spectators, the inspiration you have provided for generations of young women and most of all the chances to excel and have their achievements celebrated you have given to determined and dedicated female athletes. Your untimely death at the hands of the IOC will be mourned by at least half the worlds population.

But this idea that a totally untreated male could compete with women is obviously preposterous, too far for even Harper, and not what Harper wanted. Harper wanted transwomen like themselves to compete, not any male.

So if I understood that Today programme interview correctly:
Transwomen with lowered testosterone competing against women who didn't go through male puberty = fair competition.
Transwomen with voluntarily lowered testosterone competing against transwomen who aren't on any hormones = unfair competition.

Come on Emma Barnett, can you interview the IOC?

But they do leave the door open for verified, proven, observable unfair competitive advantages to be taken into account going forward. This has to be done on a case by case basis, considering each sport. But it can (and hopefully will) be done.

Surely things like 'The World Records for the past 50 years' instantly verify that world class males outperform world class females?

athletes should not be excluded due to "unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage[s] due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status".

There might be hope still...? The IOC is cowardly covering their backsides against accusations of arbitrarily trampling human rights...

But they do leave the door open for verified, proven, observable unfair competitive advantages to be taken into account going forward. This has to be done on a case by case basis, considering each sport. But it can (and hopefully will) be done.