Athletics: China field a women’s relay team featuring two men

[Haworthia]

This was as predictable as the day is long. China are well known for their, er, intense pursuit of national success at the Olympics. What better way than to field two blokes but insist they’re women!

I mean, look at them.

On Twitter there were numerous people suggesting that they were possibly women who have taken massive doses of testosterone. Personally, I don’t think testosterone could ever give a natal woman such masculine faces.

They’re men.

twitter.com/savewomenssport/status/1167544600002748417?s=21

....a woman called Koch. How appropriate.

"That's not their responsibility. It's the job of the governing bodies to step up, stop acting like cowardly snivelling shits, and to say 'No, anyone with a Y chromosome does not get to compete in women's events'. Right across the board. They could put a stop to this right now, but they're deliberately choosing not to."

I did not say it is their job. Clearly no one is standing up to this nonsense. Yet they are sitting idly by, letting it happen. I know it is easy to say, but I damn sure would speak up.

Why are you a sportsman if you don't represent the values of fairness and be sporting?

I know it is easy to say, but I damn sure would speak up.

Would you? When speaking up means you risk losing all your sponsorship, and for women it means being branded as someone who can't accept that they didn't win. A few retired sportspeople have spoken up, but surely you see how hard it is for women who are actually currently competing to say anything about this.

It's the job of the governing bodies to step up, stop acting like cowardly snivelling shits, and to say 'No, anyone with a Y chromosome does not get to compete in women's events'. Right across the board. They could put a stop to this right now, but they're deliberately choosing not to.

This is exactly what needs to be done.

We all need to speak up. Who else is going to do it for us?

We do speak up. Many of us have written to sporting bodies, politicians, the media, posted on social media etc.

Problem is no one in authority is listening. It is depressing to see, in real time, how very little power ordinary people have being shoved in our faces.

On googling about this, i found a report about the Asian Games 2018 mixed relay event, 2 men 2 women running in any order.

So... biology matters? Or not?

This is going to be the most common argument to have men in women's sport.

They can't argue that it would never happen and they can't argue that the men have an advantage, so it will just be about validation.

McKinnon is already all over that one.

"Focusing on performance advantage is largely irrelevant because this is a rights issue. We shouldn’t be worried about trans people taking over the Olympics. We should be worried about their fairness and human rights instead.”

So it's all basically fine and you can stop worrying about women in sports, and start worrying about trans rights instead. Thank god we've got McKinnon to sort out this stuff!

This is why women don't speak up. Lynsey Sharp did about Semenya- she's an 800m runner.

This is an article in Grazia which basically calls her a racist: graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/lynsey-sharp-cry-800m-race/

And in this article, she says she's received death threats:
www.sport24.co.za/OtherSport/Athletics/lynsey-sharp-ive-received-death-threats-for-caster-comments-20190504

And Semenya isn't even trans. But he's not a woman either.

"A few retired sportspeople have spoken up, but surely you see how hard it is for women who are actually currently competing to say anything about this."

If you read above, I clearly stated male athletes need to speak up, too.

I showed my 4 year old the picture in the article and she told me it was '2 mans and a lady' :(

I'm just thinking of myself as a kid, I used to do a martial art from age 10 and by the time the boys in my club were 12 or 13 they were already getting much bigger and stronger. How depressing if I'd have had to fight them in competitions or gradings and get beaten every time.

How can we explain this to our daughters? Well, there is the men's race for men, and the women's race for women, and er..... men, who will win all the medals. When you grow up you can be in the women's race and be beaten by men.

I'm praying that the madness will be over by the time she is old enough to be affected by these things.

I won't be able to bring myself to watch the Olympics, or let my daughter watch them if men are going to be competing against women and cheating them of medals.

I also hope that this comes to the forefront in the Olympics. It gets so much viability. Nobody gives a shit about some track event but hopefully they will care when it is beamed all over tv screens across the world. Country leaders also tend to get competitive about numbers of medals so there may be serious noises made if the Chinese team is seen as cheating their way to a win.

Also I don’t know if it’s true but I think I read that the Iranian women’s football team was made up of 50% males.

Peakyblinders.

Don't be daft it is MUCH more nuanced than that.

There are races for men and races for women.

And people with penises can take part in the women's races and people with vaginas can take part in the men's. Except you never see people with vaginas in the men's races because having a penis gives you all sorts of advantages in sports like bigger hearts and denser muscles. But of course these advantages don't exist for people with penises who take part in the women's races because...magic.

I have real concerns that the TRAs will have to throw up their hands and admit defeat on the issue of sports - this will, in turn, give them justification for the use of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for children pre-puberty. I’m scared they’re playing a very long game

All this very carefully and deliberately worded "they are female because they are not taking testosterone / have t-levels under x"

Is the new "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

Fuck off china, we've got eyes you know.

Fuck off china, we've got eyes you know

Reality is such a retro thing to believe in...

If they say they are female of course they are female, facts, science, reality don't come into it.

Can't really blame the Chinese, as far as I can tell they are playing by the rules?

MilHouse
I'm scared they playing a very long game
I agree with this. Now who could be interested in sterile, prepubescent child like people with very few sexual boundaries?

The Chinese are not cheating. They are playing by the rules. Just like England won the cricket world cup with an Irish captain, because they could. Just like the Chinese turned up at the 2012 games with 16 year old gymnasts (the minimum age) who two years earlier were twelve. (Just change the birth certs, all legit.)

Funny how Eastern block countries were eventually stripped of sport medals and titles after many years of women saying ‘that’s a woman with male hormones!’. Now they don’t even pretend.

And I thought 3 out of 4... double pants are a clue...

And people with penises can take part in the women's races and people with vaginas can take part in the men's. Except you never see people with vaginas in the men's races because having a penis gives you all sorts of advantages in sports like bigger hearts and denser muscles. But of course these advantages don't exist for people with penises who take part in the women's races because...magic.

Strike me down if I ever call men "people with penises".

I am now half-hoping the Tokyo games will be awash with trans identified men cheating in women’s sport.

I am now half-hoping the Tokyo games will be awash with trans identified men cheating in women’s sport.

I'm with you on that. That's what you need to bring it home to people. Two or three men in the more obscure events, and no one takes any notice, but if you suddenly have men sweeping the board in the major events like 100m and 200m, then people will sit up. One hopes.

I’m sure people will sit up and take notice. It’s too absurd - pythonesque in its ridiculousness. Everyone will peak and be outraged. Then they will agree, concede that post-pubescent transwomen cannot compete fairly. The only solution will be to ensure trans children cannot got through puberty (adjusts foil hat).

You see I'm cynical enough to think Tokyo will just be part of the game plan. A relatively small number of events will have biological males in, and some of them will lose... (possibly some will even throw events - we've seen this happen already in minor events so as to establish a record of "see we don't always win.") Some competitors might even deliberately come second in qualifying, only to win the final.

The end result will be the viewing public goes WTAF, while the sports authorities and BBC, Washington Post, Canadian broadcasting etc go "see, nothing to worry about here, transwomen win the odd event but not all of them (because they're not in all the events yet they won't add) so see, level playing field." Even among the public, it'll depend on whether the competitor is their national or not - in fact I predict that given the tendency towards cognitive dissonance in humans, many viewers will simultaneously be able to cheer on "their own" transwomen while accusing other countries transwomen of cheating if "their" woman comes second.

Then, after a lot of confused faces but not enough actual outrage, transwomen's place in women's sports becomes entrenched and the numbers increase and increase and increase. It might take 8 years, it might take 16, but eventually you won't see women on the podium at all. But by that stage it will be too late and everyone barring the old crones (me among them) will remember women's sport.