World Athletics

Well those big hairy laydees are going to be stamping their size 10 stilettos and boo hooing into their beer.

I think the Cass report has drastically reduced puberty blocker prescribing in most of the UK and agree that males who have puberty blockers were never that interested in getting women's sporting medals anyway being brainwashed by feminine glittery floaty dressy crap anyway. The males who changed from men's to women's sports after a male puberty were pot hunters

Sorry I was being sarcastic as the way the BBC worded it was wrong. It made it sound like it was trans men by the clunky, incorrect language . They have actually changed it now (!) so it makes sense, to ‘World Athletics bans transgender women from competing in female world ranking events’

There is a great deal of relief in my household this evening.

I'm hoping that the issue of, "But what about males who have had puberty blockers?" will become obsolete as the safeguarding net closes in on agencies providing these drugs to children. But that's a different battle.

Also pleased that the testosterone lowering requirement in athletes with male DSDs has been extended to all race distances.

I haven't seen the details, but FINA specified Tanner stage 2 when they introduced similar rules for aquatic sports.

Absolutely crucial to keep the two issues separate. Almost nobody with a trans identity has a DSD. I started a thread about this article yesterday. I found it very clear on this point. https://www.city-journal.org/understanding-the-sex-binary

We know but in what world do they count as female? The head line has been altered.

At long last a victory for common sense and women in sport.

The ban is on athletes who have undergone male puberty competing in female events.

The rate at which future superstars can be identified at an early age is usually pretty low. Often those that stand out at an early age are over taken later. Even with all the money and resources poured into identifying footballing talent national school boy age teams/academies have a pretty high drop it rate. Injury, lack of dedication and that fact the early bloomers are often just that, kids who reach a peak before their peers, and are not necessarily destined for greatness would make it a huge gamble to go down the gender reassignment route before puberty has kicked in (and hopefully something that will be impossible to access any way).

I think it should apply at all levels. Scottish orienteering ( or maybe British I forget the details as in both) recently had a questionnaire about trans athletes. I said it should be birth sex all I he way through as teenage girls often opt out of competitive sport anyway and if they are being beaten by males in local and regional competitions ( orienteering classes are based on age and gender ( used to be sex)) then girls will just give up before they get to elite level. We never got to see the results of the questionnaire and they said they were waiting to see what the international orienteering federation decided. Wimps. I bet most people were opposed to males in the women's categories at all ages

So, who will be coincidentally 'retiring' from athletics now?

I have theories.

BBC now writes about transgender "women" not "female" athletes - small victories.

Yeah, I'm not saying that no male who had had PBs/hormones would ever have an advantage over females, just that it's unlikely that anyone is going to start a male on treatment in the hope of athletic advantage.

There does seem to be some evidence that males who take PBs can end up taller than if they didn't. I don't think it's entirely safe to assume males who didn't go through puberty will be unable to compete in sports internationally, but it's a smaller problem and one for another day.

We march on.

And aye @Pixiedust1234 - I think I’d be itching to be going a bit Gibbs if someone came out with a “waaaaaaaaaaaah - it isn’t fair” in my earshot.

No ‘it isn’t faaaaaaaaair’ when women were losing their places and medals to biological males. Funny that.

I'm very, very pleased about this. Hopefully other sports that are being ... reticent, shall we say, will pay attention.

Agree about bringing it in at all levels.

If they've been taking testosterone they absolutely shouldn't.

Saw this on the news just now. AT LONG LAST SOMEONE IS LISTENING

Good news, but it should apply to all levels of competition.

Nevertheless I do wonder if this will be a new battleground - what is meant by male puberty? How late can you leave it to take PBs for a short while and still 'count' as not having gone through male puberty?

The trouble is this is the wedge used to 'include' males in female sport. Which is rather like 'including' motorbikes in horse races.

Female sport is going to have to be for the 99.9% of females who are unambiguously biologically female.

There will now need to be conversations about what additional and alternative categories may be required.

Fabulous news.

Absolutely.

Yes I think for athletes with DSD the rules should at least be specific to their particular condition.