World Athletics

[rioseco]

Press conference by Seb Coe stating that male to female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty will be excluded from female competition!
At last.

Great news!

“ until we understand more about the science of this”

oh come off it Coe, you are a man, you have been through male puberty, you were an athlete, you know about what makes an athlete more successful than another athlete, you know about how bodies work , how muscles, heart size, lung capacity, bone length and density, pelvic floor development, twitch reflexes all work together. I am pleased about the announcement, really hope other sports governing bodies follow suit, but please, don’t pretend that the science is still something no one understands. Even us silly women with our little brains know how the fucking science works.

“Fair play” is a bit ironic since they have known about this with regard to DSD athletes in Athletics for a long time, and since other sports governing bodies are still refusing to acknowledge this back door cheating!

He mentioned it later in the programme. He sounded as if he was speaking with a brillo pad in his mouth and skimmed past it fairly quickly.

I can only assume that people who aren't immersed in this are still assuming there must be some biological science, specifically neuroscience, underlying this. It does take time, as many posters here have found out, to grasp that there is none. It's a psychological condition which doctors have removed from the DSM. Thanks, medical profession!

Mediocre males - no more medals

It's a psychological condition which doctors have removed from the DSM. Thanks, medical profession!

Pros and cons to that though. At least it prevents it being treated as a disability under the EA, for example.

Yes, true enough. How do personality disorders get treated for EA purposes?

thank goodness and thank you so much to Sharron Davies who has been amazing

I just skimmed through the press conference but I want to go back and watch all of it at normal speed because the other announcement was that the long ban against Russia and Belarus because of their atrocious record on doping is now being lifted and they will be given a long set of conditions to comply with to aid their rehabilitation (They're still banned anyway because they invaded Ukraine.)

The devil is in the detail but World Athletics just gave a press conference that covered:

The history of Russian doping
Trans athletes
Athletes with a DSD

• and in which their chair repeatedly said, 'the overarching principle is to protect the female category.'

It's so rare for women to be centred in this way.

Same threshold as for other potential disabilities, i.e. if has long-term negative impact on day-to-day activity.

There was an employment appeal tribunal finding on this in 2020. Although the claimant lost, she lost because she failed to demonstrate that her PD met the threshold. It was accepted by both the original ET and the EAT that a PD could potentially be a disability.

Anyone else feel about this part of the BBC report?

Olympic diving champion Tom Daley said he was "furious" at Fina's decision to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's elite events, saying: "Anyone that's told that they can't compete or can't do something they love just because of who they are, it's not on."

Tom, women's medals are not yours to give away to other men. And no one is saying that transwomen "can't compete or can't do something they love", just that they have to do it in their own sex category. He's not renowned for his brains though, is he.

The media reporting of this is so infuriating. I keep on hearing or reading that transgender athletes have been banned from competing, not that male transgender athletes have been banned from competing in the women's category.

If it can be spun in bad faith to garner biased sympathy for males it will be.

(And spot the symptom of actual oppressed group. As opposed to corporate branding image of oppressed group. Oppressed groups do not control the media and have them vigorously spinning the facts to their benefit.)

Fantastic news. Can we start a campaign to get Sharron Davies a Damehood?

Oh😂 just realised that would make her DSD!!

As has often been noted on this board in the past, Tom knows who a woman is when he wants to buy a baby.

I think Seb knows that full well and was trying to soften the blow. It's obviously extremely unlikely that the science will come to a different conclusion however many times it is reviewed, but since in science all findings are (notionally) provisional it isn't unreasonable for WA to add this caveat/sop.

Oh just knit off Tom you irrelevant bore.

Yep it's absolutely about being their true selves and nothing to do with winning. That why women's gymnastics with its sparkly pink leotards and enforced lipstick is flooded with TWs . What wait isn't not? Well I'm confused, surely it's nothing to do the male q angle that is such an advantage to men over women in so many sports actually being a huge hindrance when it comes to the balance beam? It can't possibly be that because womaning is all about the pink and the lipstick.

Jazz Jennings and Jackie Green were, as I understand it, on PBs and so they’d, in theory, still be eligible for the female sports category?

Potentially, yes, depending on exactly when they started them. Poor Jazz would struggle to compete against a 60 year old, though, let alone an elite athlete his own age. It's incredibly sad what has been done to him.

There are scouts who spend their whole time touring countries with poor healthcare systems for kids with undiagnosed DSD who have an advantage in female category events.

USSR spent decades doping girls and young women to win unfairly and destroyed their health in the process.

Why wouldn't there be people who are prepared to put young male athletes on treatment in the hope of athletic advantage?

Tom, women's medals are not yours to give away to other men. And no one is saying that transwomen "can't compete or can't do something they love", just that they have to do it in their own sex category.

Yes, Tom's comments were seriously annoying. No-one is saying transwomen can't compete, just that like everyone else they can't exploit an unfair advantage.

He's not renowned for his brains though, is he.

I guess diving headfirst into water from a great height probably hasn't helped on that front....

Why there be people who are prepared to put young male athletes on treatment in the hope of athletic advantage?

Oh, I don't mean people would be deterred by ethical considerations. I just mean it would be a dumb strategy, because you're probably going to end up with an osteoporotic dough ball.