Another athletics one

[Worldgonecrazy]

I don’t often watch sport but yesterday caught a few minutes of the indoor athletics. There was one athlete in a women’s event who looked VERY male and won by a significant margin. Anyone else see the same thing?

Yes. I googled them but couldn't find out very much. But alarm bells did ring. I wonder what the rules are surrounding this distance?

Devynne is 5' 3" tall and clearly female. Just look at the photo of her at the top of her wiki page.

She looked clearly female to me and ran a great race.

But this is where we are now. There have been so many cheaters that we question everything, which is sad. I found myself looking carefully before deciding to me she was legitimately there, and then felt bad about doing it.

Not sure if it's the same one but there was a competitor who the commentator said wished to be referred to as "they/them"

Isn’t it interesting that I didn’t need to name names?

And I agree, this is where we are, questioning everything.

I think the margin of victory may have led to me being suspicious initially, but with the Olympics this year a lot of top athletes didn't go to the indoors, so the ones that did really stood out.

They could easily solve this issue by bringing back the cheek swab test wherever sport is divided by sex.

They could indeed. But they don't want to.

Nikki Hiltz is non binary but is a biological woman. They were absolutely in the right event.

This is the same athlete that the OP is talking about when she was a teenager. She's just bulked out a bit and cut her hair.

Here’s three more photos. Easy to see why there are some people asking the same question.

I 100% agree that biological males shouldn't compete in women's sport (and that's not even starting on the mess of DSD) but this athlete is not a biological male. She's well known on the circuit and has been around for years. She's just got short hair and a face that isn't traditionally feminine.

I just don't think it's fair to drag women into the argument when it is nothing to do with her. Nobody within the athletics world is questioning her gender and the more vocal athletes like Amelia Campbell (was Strickler) and Mara Yamauchi would be all over it.

It's not fair, but that's where this mess has got us - any successful athlete who doesn't look feminine makes people wonder.

It's not right and it's not their fault, it's the fault of the biological men damanding to compete as women. Its a direct result of that phenomenon.

Exactly, and that's what made me query initially, and I don't feel good about that. It is all the fault of entitled men.

Is they another Casta semaya ?

How can you even ask that question?

My husband mentioned this last night. He said the athlete looked male. I've been googling to try and find some pictures - just seen this thread,

She doesn't have DSD. If she'd have turned up to the World indoors with long hair and knicker shorts no one would have questioned.

It'd be hugely unlikely that a biological male or DSD athlete is 5ft 3 (and it's bloody impressive that a female has done so well at the sprint hurdles at that height!)

She has been around for years, is an Olympic finalist and I'm sure she's won a world indoor silver or bronze previously. She's just gradually styled herself less feminine over the years.

She is very small, practically no men are 5'3".
I think the previous photos are misleading, she doesn't look remotely male. Even her ears are tiny.

It was the height that made me sit up. At 5’3” there is a height disadvantage, so that makes the performance much more remarkable.

I just wasted a lot of time on the Internet trying to work out whether a young woman I've never met might have a medical disorder that's none of my business, and now I hate myself.

Threads like this need never happen if only sporting bodies always did a cheek swab. There is something awry about their thinking, and it is not new.

Would you say the same about Jemma Reekie?

I suspect, still, some form of DSD - it is not just that she has short hair and is muscular - but that her whole gait, and even facial structure, seems to have changed since she was younger and has become far more masculine. Maybe she has naturally elevated testosterone levels - becaue even though she keeps breaking records her trainers say she still has far more in her.

You're right, she does seem very 'flat chested' too. I guess a lot of young female athletes who have been training since childhood may have very little body fat, and I imagine some may even have suppressed menstruation too.