Guardian article - Committee British Olympians call for IOC to shelve ‘unfair’ transgender guidelines

[EweSurname]

Survey of 15 female athletes finds frustration over current policy
Group in favour of suspension of rules pending further research

www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jun/12/olympians-ioc-transgender-guidelines

Devine said those surveyed have won seven Olympic and 56 world championship medals between them. She defended the small number of athletes in the study, saying it was a starting point as athletes often did not want to speak out for fear of recriminations. She said she had used a standard qualitative research technique in the social sciences called “snowball sampling”, which is used to get information from of hard-to-reach groups and investigate difficult topics, and was not intended to be wholly representative.

Among those questioned – who came from track and field, swimming, rowing and modern pentathlon – were Tessa Sanderson, the 1984 Olympic javelin gold medallist, and Sharron Davies, who won a swimming silver in 1980, both of whom have already made their views known.

Devine also found widespread frustration among athletes with the IOC over a perceived lack of consultation before it published its latest transgender guidelines in 2015. The guidelines allow any transgender athlete to compete as a woman without undergoing surgery provided they have reduced their serum testosterone to 10nmols/L for at least 12 months.

[...]Those guidelines have drawn some criticism because they allow higher levels of testosterone for transgender athletes than the usual range for women, which is between 0.06 and 1.68nmols/L. The typical range for men is 7.7 to 29.4nmols/L. The IOC is close to introducing new guidelines requiring transgender athletes to lower their testosterone even further, to 5nmols/L, if they want to compete in women’s sport.

One respondent to Devine’s survey said: “New guidelines do not level the playing field, or protect our human rights to equal opportunities. There was not enough science-based research on elite athletes to make rules. It’s a live experiment where female athletes will lose out until the obvious is proved. Then it will be changed. That’s not fair.”

"She defended the small number of athletes in the study, saying it was a starting point as athletes often did not want to speak out for fear of recriminations".

And yet the "survey" that made the IOC change its rules to allow males to enter women's competitions was based on the personal observations of 8 male people who identify as transgender.

Great. If it's in the Guardian perhaps a few more leftie lovvies will give it a bit more thought.

I note a quote from Joanna Harper in which she seems to concede that transwoman have some physical advantages, but then pleads that this advantage is cancelled by the poor TW's 'sociological disadvantages'.

So that must be the new argument, given they can't literally make people disbelieve their own eyes re male advantage in female sports.

Good catch, JanesKettle. Interesting pivot there by Harper. Not very persuasive, I'm afraid.

Tbh it's fucking amazing the Guardian is even airing these opinions.
I think #TeamNavratilova needs thanking.

All power and kudos to those women who completed this survey. Could probably hazard a guess at who but that would be unfair.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Guardian offices. Sean Ingle and LOJ at the water cooler as a start. The infighting would be cracking entertainment.

I think this is massive.
Respect to these women.

Bloody hell. And that's in the Guardian?

It's Sean Ingle. His stuff on women's sports has been better than the usual pieces in the Guardian.