World Athletics

Athletes with CAIS have always been allowed to compete against women though. They were allowed decades ago when obligatory chromosome testing (cheek swab) occurred and they were allowed when testosterone lowering guidelines were mandated a few years ago.

The athletes who have to lower their testosterone are XY DSD athletes who are androgen sensitive, ie they’ve gone through a form of male puberty. CAIS athletes are exempt - they’re XY but androgen insensitive.

However, if it was up to me, I’d ban them as well. When chromosomal testing was mandated they were found to be overrepresented at the Olympics cf their natural level of occurrence. There will be other advantages, maybe related to height, bone structure, lack of periods

Parkrun have allowed a male runner to hold a woman's course record. I complained and got a 'be kind' reply.

OMG is that really happening?

I expect the wokey wokes at Parkrun will still prioritise inclusion over fairness - the WA policy only applies at elite level.

Are they governed by World Athletics, do you know?

Now I wonder if parkrun will stop male bodied people holding female course records...

PMK for the informative posting.

I know, it's absolutely crazy!
I think because there was such a reaction when he first on the scene, but in interviews he calls himself a man...I have no idea why people think he's done repressed individual? He's fine really well out of basically having his balls indeed his body rather than on the outside?

But Yay for the ruling!

It’s absolutely not true, because Semenya is not a woman. Semenya has normal testosterone levels for a male.

Yep, because the public is being gaslighted about DSD athletes. Anyone pointing out that Semenya, Mboma, Wambui et al are biologically male are accused of being racist.

I think Michael Johnson got close to being allowed to explain it on the BBC once.

it's absolutely true, in the sense that her T levels reached male heights via the efforts of her (clearly well functioning) testicles, rather than via 'unnatural' means such as a syringe.

The general public think Semenya is female or a woman because all media insist on calling Semenya a “woman with naturally high testosterone levels” 🙄

@WarningToTheCurious

The general public don't understand that 5-ARD is a male DSD. They sure as shit understand that fathering a child makes someone is male.

Caster has very much played the sympathy card with the general public, a lot of whom still think Caster is female.

That's the best we've had in Ireland. There is state censorship in place regarding trans reporting & lots of pro trans propaganda. The irish times posted an article about Barbie Kardashian on Wednesday & it was deleted.

Bit of a muddled article IMO.

It all comes back to the reasons why we have a women’s sporting category in the first place. It’s so that women can compete against the same gender, at the same level.

Should be "same sex", not "same gender". Sex and gender are really not synonymous in this case. Likewise,

The issue of transgender female athletes isn’t yet a major talking point among current athletes, maybe more so among those passionate about protecting women’s sport.

They aren't female, they're transwomen and they're male.

No trans identifying men should be in women's sports at any level. As for XY DSDs, they are still men, just because they didn't grow a dick in utero it doesn't make them women. Women are not disordered men

Semenya has already publicly confirmed their 5-ARD status in their CAS appeal.

It’s no secret that Semenya has an exclusively male condition.

Telling an otherwise normal and healthy male they can run in a women's race if they take drugs to artificially reduce their testosterone (which will have knock on health impacts) is irresponsible to DSD athletes, in addition to women.

Interesting that Sonia O’Sullivan references Nyonsaba’s world record for the 2000m , which I think SS herself had held and which had been unbeaten for well over 20 years. Nyonsaba broke it by four whole seconds. If this record is allowed to stand, which it will, then there is little or no chance of a natal woman ever holding that particular record again, because, as good as they are, no female athlete is going to be able to run four seconds faster than an athlete with XY chromosomes, with the lung size, pelvic formation, heart capacity , muscle strength, testosterone strength boost and bone size that male puberty imparts.

I am pleased that in the future female athletes will know that ( most) female records are held by female competitors, running fairly. Those of us who watched sports in the bad old days of iffy drug testing remember athletes like Flo Jo, whose undoubtably drug enhanced records skewed the record books for years, not to mention the Russian and East German athletes whose cheating deprived many, including Sharron Davis, of their moment on the podium .

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/athletics/2022/03/24/sonia-osullivan-transgender-athletes-cannot-be-allowed-to-compete-in-womens-sport-1.4834586/

Excellent article from Irish athlete Sonia O Sullivan

Catching up late to the party - this is great news!

A great article by Debbie Hayton, as is often the case.

As you say, it seems highly unlikely that CS meaningfully 'identities as a woman", based on the boorish, exaggeratedly macho and sexist persona she projects in interviews. Even if you were to (wrongly) accept CS as biologically female, CS is, by TRA standards, unambiguously a 'trans man', though funnily enough doesn't seem to want to run with men. It's often overlooked that CS won gold in London whilst taking female hormones but now refuses to same them, given that running (and associated earning opportunities) is CS's only source of income I can only conclude that CS really strongly dislikes the feminising effects of taking female hormones.

I've reported my comment about CS, children and the DSD affecting CS for (inadvertent) misinformation so hopefully it will disappear soon.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow
Whether or not Caster has fathered children, you can be 100% sure he has not been the mother of any.

Precisely. That's the nub of it.

Whether or not Caster has fathered children, you can be 100% sure he has not been the mother of any.