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Paris Olympics 2024

@Eggs
One of the americans in the ladies decathlon has totally fluffed the high jump (easy at the back!) and the studio is in raptures about her chances being finished.

…I know, I saw that in the heptathlon. I think one of the blokes in the declathon also failed to score in one of the events and it blew his chances. I’m surprised Thompson failed to score a point in the pole vault and still managed to medal, some achievement.
 
This feels like a science lesson!

The first bolded section is a bit of a contradiction. In mammals, sex is determined by chromosomes & gametes - meaning XY & sperm = male, XX & ova = female. The fact Semenya has testes which produce sperm makes 'her' male/man. 46 XY 5-ARD (5-alpha-reductase deficiency) is a DSD which only affects males - in the same way prostate cancer only affects males. She recently stated in an interview that 'her testicles don't make her any less of a woman'.

The testes are THE ONLY defining factor, they're what make and distribute the male levels of testosterone, the same way as ovaries create the female levels of oestrogen.

As for the advantages, that basically means that Caster Semenya is an average male runner - not a world class female runner. What you're saying is all men should beat all women - it's simply not the case. The same goes for Imane Khelif, he is an average male boxer - the 9 losses he's suffered are because he's an average male boxer, but still has insurmountable advantages over biological females.

I feel for Semenya & Khelif - they didn't ask to be born with these conditions, but the biological fact remains that they're the wrong sex for the category they compete in. 0.00025% of the world's population are diagnosed with 46 XY 5-ARD, yet 3 of them won gold/silver/bronze in the 800m in Rio, does this not prove the massive advantage they hold over biological women?


Anyway, I don't want to ruin this thread with another debate so Ewa Swodoba eh!
They're not though. Sex is defined by Chromosomes, Gonads (Testes, Ovaries) as well as Anatomy (Vagina, Penis).

Semenya has male Chromosomes and non standard male Gonads (e.g internal testes), but has female anatomy - Vagina. She doesn't have a Penis. She is intersex, not male or female. I also haven't seen any proof from you that she actually produces sperm.

I do think you probably have a point about the running aspect now I think of it so I can agree on that.

As for Khelif, I don't know as much about her circumstances as Semenya and am interested to hear what more comes out.

Think it's a very complex situation for those in charge to have to handle but it's something that does need to be cleared up across all sports and it may take some years for it to happen.
 

Any of you oldies remember collecting the LA 84 weetabix cards? Daley Thompson was my hero as a kid.
1984-Weetabix-Weet-Olympix-Stickers.jpg
 


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