Where do we draw the line?
August 19, 2016 4:17 AM Subscribe
An athlete denied gold by a doper in 2012, coming back as clearest of favourites to win this time. A runner clocking such fast times, with no suggestion whatsoever of doping herself, that she could smash a questionable world record that has stood for 33 years. A young woman who was humiliated at her first global championships, coming back to the Olympics as the dominant athlete in her event.
Semenya, born and raised as a girl, is believed to be intersex - identifying as a woman, but with physical characteristics typically associated with both men and women.
Caster Semenya qualified for the Olympic women’s 800m final with supreme ease and, barring a catastrophe, appears nailed on for gold in Saturday’s final. The South African, looking as if she was out for a Sunday morning jog, won the third of three semis in the fastest time of the night – one minute, 58.15 seconds
Her story began in 2009, with the sex-verification controversy of Berlin, and then it progressed over six years during which she was subject to a new rule that governed intersex athletes by limiting their testosterone levels.
CAS overturned that rule last year, when an Indian sprinter called Dutee Chand took her case to them. The result is that all intersex women no longer have a limit on testosterone. Semenya is certainly not the only one – rumours of other runners exist [including some that will line up beside Semenya in the final on Saturday], though none were so shamefully “outed” as Semenya in 2009. However, she is proof of the benefit of testosterone to intersex athletes – having had the restriction removed, she is now about 6 seconds faster than she’d been over the last two years.
My name is Joanna Harper, and perhaps more than anyone on the planet, I live and breathe gender and sports. It is a world of science, human rights and athletic performance; it is complicated, controversial, contradictory and wonderful. Welcome to my world.
It was not, however, until after my gender transition that science, sports, and gender came together for me. After I started on Hormone Replacement Therapy (a testosterone blocker and estrogen), my ability to run fast took a major hit. This unsettling loss of speed led me to examine the science of sports performance and how we look at gender within the sports world.
I became the only person ever to publish a scientific paper on transgender athletic performance. My study and my interests have opened some rather amazing doors for me; I am the only transgender person in history to be part of the team to advise the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on gender-based issues.
Jarmila Kratochvilova's 1983 women's 800 metres run is the longest-standing world record. Many women's athletics world records were set during the 80's by eastern European athletes on testosterone-mimicking steroids supplied by state doping programmes in the years before out-of-competition testing was introduced.
So what's the answer? If separate men's and women's athletics categories don't exist, then women's elite athletics vanishes. If they do exist, then eligibility criteria must exist. The IAAF's previous rules drew the line of testosterone levels - if you were lower than a certain amount you could compete in the women's category. It's interesting that Joanna Harper advocates this line. Now that the CAS has reversed that and the line has become very fuzzy. Given the prevalence of intersex people this debate may run for some time to come.
(previously, previously, previously, previously)
Caster Semenya qualified for the Olympic women’s 800m final with supreme ease and, barring a catastrophe, appears nailed on for gold in Saturday’s final. The South African, looking as if she was out for a Sunday morning jog, won the third of three semis in the fastest time of the night – one minute, 58.15 seconds
Her story began in 2009, with the sex-verification controversy of Berlin, and then it progressed over six years during which she was subject to a new rule that governed intersex athletes by limiting their testosterone levels.
CAS overturned that rule last year, when an Indian sprinter called Dutee Chand took her case to them. The result is that all intersex women no longer have a limit on testosterone. Semenya is certainly not the only one – rumours of other runners exist [including some that will line up beside Semenya in the final on Saturday], though none were so shamefully “outed” as Semenya in 2009. However, she is proof of the benefit of testosterone to intersex athletes – having had the restriction removed, she is now about 6 seconds faster than she’d been over the last two years.
My name is Joanna Harper, and perhaps more than anyone on the planet, I live and breathe gender and sports. It is a world of science, human rights and athletic performance; it is complicated, controversial, contradictory and wonderful. Welcome to my world.
It was not, however, until after my gender transition that science, sports, and gender came together for me. After I started on Hormone Replacement Therapy (a testosterone blocker and estrogen), my ability to run fast took a major hit. This unsettling loss of speed led me to examine the science of sports performance and how we look at gender within the sports world.
I became the only person ever to publish a scientific paper on transgender athletic performance. My study and my interests have opened some rather amazing doors for me; I am the only transgender person in history to be part of the team to advise the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on gender-based issues.
Jarmila Kratochvilova's 1983 women's 800 metres run is the longest-standing world record. Many women's athletics world records were set during the 80's by eastern European athletes on testosterone-mimicking steroids supplied by state doping programmes in the years before out-of-competition testing was introduced.
So what's the answer? If separate men's and women's athletics categories don't exist, then women's elite athletics vanishes. If they do exist, then eligibility criteria must exist. The IAAF's previous rules drew the line of testosterone levels - if you were lower than a certain amount you could compete in the women's category. It's interesting that Joanna Harper advocates this line. Now that the CAS has reversed that and the line has become very fuzzy. Given the prevalence of intersex people this debate may run for some time to come.
(previously, previously, previously, previously)
This post was deleted for the following reason: Yeah, this is a bit difficult to parse. Feel free to repost tomorrow with the quoted parts marked as such. -- goodnewsfortheinsane
Yeah, this post needs quotation marks around the quotes. It's a bit confusing.
"My name is Joanna Harper," - I assume that's not you, kersplunk, right?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:47 AM on August 19, 2016
"My name is Joanna Harper," - I assume that's not you, kersplunk, right?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:47 AM on August 19, 2016
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I'm really confused by what's editorial here and what isn't.
posted by listen, lady at 4:44 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]