"Racing to become the first transwoman Paralympian

[StrangeLookingParasite]

BBC again. I have not started my day off well.

www.bbc.com/news/stories-57338207

It's all sunlight.

I like the idea of handicapping being introduced. I think that could be a solution. Seems fair enough.

Para sport relies on different categories of severity of disability and what a person can do. It's quite difficult sometimes where to place people, and there have been cases of trying to get into a different class to get an advantage. Those classes are there though to try and ensure as much fairness and equality in competition though, which most people would understand. With this based on anatomy and physical characteristics, how can they ignore one of the biggest determents of this, sex?

@MaryLennoxsScowl

I like the idea of handicapping being introduced. I think that could be a solution. Seems fair enough.

I can't think of any way a fair handicapping system could be introduced though? There would always people who ended up with an advantage or disadvantage still.

I wonder how loughborough university has satisfied itself that there are no conflicts of interest for someone competing as a transgender athlete researching the effects of hormone therapy. This from the article:

Petrillo is taking part in studies led by Joanna Harper, at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the University of Loughborough in the UK, on the precise effects of hormone therapy on trans women athletes.
A transgender runner herself, Harper has been in the unique position of studying the effects of hormone therapy on athletic performance first hand.

And I gave myself answers - astonishment, confusion and doubt.

I find it odd that Valentina makes no mention of anger as a possible reaction the female competitors might have.

FFS! That podium photo - how much happier would those women be if they had their rightful gold and silver medals? I want to see the face of the woman who came 4th. I might be being over sensitive but this at the bottom of the page bugged me as well. The ‘you may also be interested in’ stories usually have some link to the story you’re reading, don’t they? Trans woman ——— persecuted Jews

@FindTheTruth

"If she wants to run with us we would be happy for her to do so. We will always welcome her but we don't want her to compete with us for titles," Quilleri says.

This is fair. There's no harm running with females as there's less risk of injury compared to contact sports but competing at elite level is unfair as science and common sense shows.

Yes, surely this is the answer. Participation after all is what it is all about, not blowing the competition out of the water or material gain. We are told this often.

Thespian I think the link was "Italy"...

Therapist even...

I like the idea of handicapping being introduced. I think that could be a solution. Seems fair enough.
Not really. The category "woman" (and man) is already a broad category. It has to be - if everyone has a separate handicap according to their ability, theoretically they would all have the same race speed! And remember if Petrillo was given a handicap to compete fairly it would have to be a big one - NO females of Petrillo's age are winning those races. Thus Petrillo would also have to lose for it to be fair.

January 2019 she began hormone therapy

Well wouldn't that have been a serendipitous timing for the originally scheduled 2020 Paralympics

Also the comment Since 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has required female athletes to have less than five nanomoles of testosterone per litre of blood isn't correct is it?

The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition

stillmed.olympic.org/Documents/Commissions_PDFfiles/Medical_commission/2015-11_ioc_consensus_meeting_on_sex_reassignment_and_hyperandrogenism-en.pdf

It's the IAAF that sets the 5 nanomole limit?

Yes, IOC is 10. And that's not female athletes, it's male athletes competing in female categories. As far as I know, neither IOC nor IAAF have any testosterone limits for actual females.

The IOC, along with everyone else, realise that 10 is obviously too high, being within the normal male range, but meetings to discuss lowering it to 5 have been a bit deadlocked, apparently. I gather that there isn't consensus to lower to 5 as a large chunk of participants want to reverse the 2015 rule change and others want "inclusion, yay!". There's no support for the 5nmol/l "compromise". So the rules are stuck where they are.

I hate the BBC.

No interest in women at all

I just don't know how anybody can watch that footage, see the one athlete who is so much taller, with a different gait, breeze through to easily win all the medals despite being so much older than the others, AND STILL GO OH MAYBE ITS FAIR WE NEED MORE RESEARCH.

How terrible for that this person that they could only become their authentic self so late in life when they could no longer beat all the men. Oh, wait .....

@AsWeKnowIt

And I gave myself answers - astonishment, confusion and doubt.

I find it odd that Valentina makes no mention of anger as a possible reaction the female competitors might have.

Being angry isn't naice and ladylike is it?

The hypocrisy around this whole charade is astounding. Petrillo is male bodied, competing in the women's category.
Ness Murby is female bodied, is a transman yet competes in the - women's category.
Surely, all things being equal, Murby should be competing in the men's category?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ness_Murby

@UppityPuppity

I hate the BBC.

No interest in women at all

This.

I'm disgusted at their 'journalism' these days. I want to complain about their reporting of this- basically what @UppityPuppity said, they don't give a fuck about women. Don't fucking call us ciswomen- I do not fucking identify as the sex/'gender' I was 'assigned'- it wasn't 'assigned'- my sex was observed. Every day feels like a new tipping point.

I have to contact my children's school about their PSHE content, which is going to take some time to think through and draft. I'm so fucking exhausted from all this absolute bullshit all the time.

Women's sport should be for women and no one else.

This makes me so cross. I notice she waited until she was past her peak and unable to compete so successfully in men's sports before transitioning. I guess that has extended her potential sporting career by 20 years or more. I can see lots of people doing the same in the future if things don't change.

Pathetic cheat !