Thursday 2 May 2019

Sympathy For Semenya But Ruling Seems Fair

It's hard not to have sympathy with South African athlete Caster Semenya after she lost her appeal against The Court of Arbitration for Sport which has  has rejected Semenya's appeal against athletics' governing body's regulations which found that forcing athletes with high levels testosterone to lower them is 'discriminatory but necessary'.
Unlike may of the drug cheats in Athletics, Semenya has done nothing wrong, she was born with her condition, raised as a woman and continues to identify as a woman and her high levels of testosterone are naturally occurring.
The problem is that the high level of testosterone gives Semenya 'a significant and unfair advantage' and the testosterone level should be reduced to ensure fair competition in women's sport.
The IAAF says that most female athletes have testosterone levels in the range of 0.12 to 1.79 nanomoles per litre (nmol/l) while Semenya has the levels of a normal adult male, from 7.7 to 29.4nmol/l.
The International Olympic Committee states 99% of women have testosterone levels less than 3.0nmol/l and Semenya must reduce her levels to 5nmol/l to protect the other 99% of female competitors.
I understand the opposite argument that testosterone is a naturally occurring body hormone but the ruling seems fair to me because to allow someone to compete against women with such a staggering disadvantage is unfair.

7 comments:

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

If you are competing against her, why does it matter whether or not how she "relates" to the gender she has selected matters?

Maybe we should seek equity - pump testosterone into, or extract testosterone out of athletes until they all have the same level.

PS - Since your posts indicated you are a misandrist, I would think you would want to extract testosterone...

Falling on a bruise said...

She has an unfair advantage so you can either bring her down to everyone else's level or raise everyone up to her level. First is simple, second is madness and almost impossible.
Me a misandrist or you missing the sense of humour gene?

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

so, you want to bring her down then... same as wealthy people. nice

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

and i was laughing the whole time knowing you had to bring her down, or say equity didn't matter...

Falling on a bruise said...

Bring her down as in undo her unfair advantage

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

ha ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. how is that any different than any other superior athlete. the best always have born abilities that other don't have. lebron james didnt become great by just working hard. he is taller than most. for a tall person he is faster than most. are you gonna bring him down to make it equal?

bullshit lucy

Falling on a bruise said...

Hmmm...classy.

Anyway, if a basketball player was 29 times taller than the rest of the players (the amount of testosterone Semenya has of an advantage more than the rest of the female athletes) then you would have a point but he isn't so your point is laughably awful.