The development comes after a presentation to the International Olympic Committee by its medical chief, which highlighted the potential physical advantages of competing in women’s sport after being born male.
Watch them ban transgender women and clowns like JK Rowling STILL accuse cis women in the Olympics of being trans
Just make the mens competition an “open” competition so that anybody can qualify if they can. A trans-woman competing in the “open” category would be no problem.
Other categories can then stay protected.
In many sports it already is
We’re only a matter of time from a sporting regime where it’s just broadly “open” to a level bordering on chaos, and it’s the only thing that is going to keep people watching.
The “should trans people compete” debate is going to be overshadowed by the “should people with extra hearts and enhanced organs be allowed to compete” debate.
The idea of “preserving fairness” in sports is wild when you think about it. Nothing about sports is “fair” you only succeed by getting an unfair advantage over your opponents, we just like to delude ourselves into thinking that because we set some kind of parameters around this capability to gain an advantage, that it’s “fair.”
I get the giggles watching Anatoly prank videos. He plays a nerdy, Eastern European janitor, pushing a mop around the gym. He regularly astounds the much larger guys by effortlessly lifting their weights.
One of his gags is casually handing the monster weightlifters his 32kg mop. They instantly drop it, “Is there problem? See! Is normal mop.” Picks it up one handed, zero strain.
This one is great! Girls are trying not to straight make fun of him talking about ab training. “Show us yours.” Aight. (Can’t find the better version where you can see his abs, but he’s a monster.)
Whatever his training regime, it’s obvious he has muscle density bordering on superhuman. Talk about advantage!
Or look at Michael Phelps. Dude smokes and is basically Aquaman. I forget what’s unusual about his body, but he’s a rare one.
Webbed fingers and toes, and disproportionately long arms for more power.
Isn’t there something about Phelp’s weirdly long torso?
I think that’s part of it, more torso than legs helps in core power and super long arms for power generation.
Couldn’t there just be an open category in addition to men’s and women’s?
I don’t think men need a protected category for most sports, so having both would just be duplication.
If nothing else, it’s just options for someone to pick from. Why allow one person more choices and not another? Everyone should have the same ability to choose.
We already have that. Men can join the men’s sport, which is usually open, like the NHL, but a restricted group can join the women’s sport. So women already have two choices - join a group where they are statistically unlikely to win, or compete against a group which is a better representation of her peers.
If you want more restricted groups, sure, why not? But the more groups there are, the more most sports will be diluted.
Thank you for the insight. I don’t watch or care about the Olympics or sports in general, so this whole conversation is moot. But to clarify, I was thinking more broadly about events at the Olympics, not just traditional sports. I’d think something like archery or fencing or something that’s not purely strength related would be more even.
There are some interesting cases. It took a long time for men to break into synchronized swimming, where women typically have the advantage. Archery still has some strength elements that could be relevant, but shooting should be pretty egalitarian and is still split, as far as I know.
I have never been particularly into sports, and stopped watching the Olympics very much when the amateur requirements were relaxed (when hockey was dominated by NHL stars). There may be some nuances I’m missing, and there is also the aspect of making a sport/competition more welcoming to women, such as women’s chess. While those are interesting social/cultural aspects, they have much less bearing on capabilities of a given sex/gender.
It would be dominated by men.
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Thats not necessarily true. Depends on the event.
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Having a choice of being in a men’s only vs an open category would allow them the choice as opposed to forcing all men to be in the open category, there by reducing the number of men entering in the open category. There would be less opportunity for that to happen.
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Men’s IS the open category
Thank you for clarifying.
To reiterate my reply to another user, I don’t really watch or care about the Olympics or sports in general. I just out of my ass about things I know nothing about.
Still seems weird to me, though.
They should also ban tall people from playing basketball. They have a potential physical advantage over short people.
… its not the same at all. And no I won’t explain all the reasons why.
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if they got surgery to reduce their size would you be okay with it?
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Tall people were born tall.
The tallest baby ever born was 28 inches tall. That’s 2’4”.
I’m not tall, but I’m taller than that.
I put it to you that babies are born short and grow over time.
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That’s a pedantic argument.
Dont try and speak logically about this
Fuck the Olympics. It’s corrupt, it’s full of cheaters and gamblers, and now more bigotry.
What about the potential physical advantages of competing in women’s sport after being born strong?
There are none. That doesn’t stop bigots from pretending trans women on estrogen have any advantage.
I question that as well. The strength advantage seems to be a factor of how early one transitions. If we figure that in, now we have another controversy, another fat can of worms.
They’re probably thinking along these lines and just saying, “Fuck it, total ban, zero tolerance.”
You may have misunderstood the point of my rhetorical question. I will elaborate.
What about people who are born with XX chromosomes, and all the associated lady bits, who happen to be especially strong? Or tall? Or flexible? Or any other kind of physical difference that would give them an advantage in their chosen sport?
Wouldn’t those people have exactly the same kind of “unfair advantage”?
“Oh, wait, that’s not what we mean,” the Olympics organizers might say. “We are only concerned with one kind of innate physical difference, and not any others.”
“We’re only concerned with one kind of innate physical difference, and not any others.”
I remember writing up something in the same vein in a comment on another platform some months ago. It’s nice to see someone else on the same train of thought :)
Of theres one thinf I know about babies, it’s that about half of them are born strong
you clearly dont know what youre talking about
If it wasn’t for the culture wars, it would be another Oscar Pistorius situation. Not the murder, the prosthetics.
For those who don’t know this guy was a runner whose legs were amputated, and he got replacement prosthetics that made him as good if not better than runners with natural legs. There was some debate if his disability actually gives him an advantage, if it should be allowed at all.
And proceeded to shoot his girlfriend on valentine’s day.
Blindly, through a bathroom door. Reading about that fucked me up.
Right, but before he became a murderer he was an inspiration to many people.
The news of his trial hit many people like a punch in the gut. How could such an inspirational person commit such a horrible crime? It was one of the worst feelings of betrayal experienced by the public.
Tragic, yea. Inspiring persona, shitty person.
The Olympic committee has had well established rules on transgender athletes for decades. This change is ridiculous. They might as well go back to chromosomal testing for athletes. It makes as much sense as this nonsense
The Olympic committee has had well established rules on transgender athletes for decades
What are they? The article says “leaving it for each sport to decide themselves.” which doesn’t sound consistent.
I think a lot of people are going to boycott these Olympics. The trump regime doesn’t deserve to host.
This is just an excuse to attack trans people under the guise of fairness. It’s horrible
*This is an excuse for the Seven Mountain Mandate to “save people who wouldn’t otherwise understand from hellfire”.
“Under the guise of fairness”
Geezus good lordy. No one can even try to be fair anymore lest they be judged as being “homophobic”…
yall suck…
boycott the olympics then
Another reason to
Do trans women keep placing number 1 during competition?
No, but there was that fuss last year at the Olympics because some of the boxers looked manly. They weren’t even trans, incidentally, not that that little fact ever made the headlines or the Facebook groups.
You’re right, thats a very important factor to consider. We shouldnt worry about it until they start consistently placing in first place. Thats when flags will/should be raised.
To give everyone some perspective on the BS behind these transphobic bans: professional darts and professional chess both have trans bans. It’s never been about fairness in sports
Why should chess and darts be treated differently? There’s evidence that males have an advantage in darts:
https://www.mdx.ac.uk/news/2023/2/linda-duffy-darts-psychology/
Given how many sports that males have an advantage in, it certainly seems reasonable to have sex-based competitions as the default.
Well well well, so much for being inclusive. Fucking pricks
You should want to abolish the premise of womens sports that’s progressive, otherwise you are admitting women should be in leagues of their own.
Even the reporting is biased; trans women aren’t born male.
