Search Weight Loss Topics:

Home » Testosterone » What Qualifies a Woman to Compete as a Woman? The Ugly Fight Is Here Again – New York Times

Last month, the I.A.A.F. gave a sneak peek of what it had found in the two years since the courts ruling, publishing a news release that included a study financed by the I.A.A.F. and the World Anti-Doping Agency. The study, a paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, examined the testosterone levels in 2,127 blood samples provided by athletes competing at the 2011 and 2013 world track and field championships. It concluded that some women with high testosterone levels can have a marked advantage over some women with lower levels but only in certain events.

The event that yielded the most glaring advantage was the hammer throw, an edge the paper put at 4.53 percent. The pole vault (2.94 percent), the 400-meter hurdles (2.78 percent), the 400 (2.73 percent) and the 800 (1.78 percent) were found to have smaller, yet significant, advantages for competitors with hyperandrogenism, but all were far below the 10 to 12 percent advantage generally recognized as the performance difference between men and women.

Thats an important point. In 2015, the court said the I.A.A.F. might want to reconsider barring women with hyperandrogenism from the female category if the degree of advantage were well below 12 percent.

For Chand, who competes in races decided by fractions of a second, this focus on numbers and percentages is not merely a theoretical debate. It has made her anxious about her fate.

I do get afraid, but I have faith in my God, Chand told FirstPost, an Indian news site, at a meet in June.

In a statement, Chand and her lawyers contended that the I.A.A.F. study failed to clear the high bar set by the courts ruling two years ago. They appear to be right. On its own, the study is hardly the slam dunk the I.A.A.F. probably hoped it would be.

But nothing about this issue is a slam dunk.

Dr. Eric Vilain, a medical geneticist, helped create the International Olympic Committees hyperandrogenism policy, which requires a competitor with the condition to undergo treatment that lowers her testosterone levels. But he admitted that the policy was not perfect, and that it couldnt be perfect.

Determining whether a single athlete has an advantage over others is basically impossible, Vilain said, because looking at performance through the lens of only one variable, like high levels of testosterone, ignores too many others training regimen, height, limb length, nutrition that can contribute to success.

This issue could be made simpler, according to Dr. Myron Genel, a Yale professor emeritus and longtime consultant to the I.O.C.s medical commission, if the governing bodies would finally listen to the advice that he and others had given them more than two decades ago.

In the 1990s, those experts suggested that athletes born with what is known as a disorder of sex development a biological anomaly that might result in atypically high testosterone production should compete as females if they were raised as females. It is the same advice that Genel and some of his colleagues give today.

Hyperandrogenism can be a natural genetic advantage, Genel argued, in the same way Michael Phelpss flipper-size feet or Usain Bolts uncommonly long stride give those athletes a winning edge.

I think all elite competition at an elite level is unfair, in one form or another, Genel said.

But will it ever be perfectly fair? Could it ever be perfectly fair? Not when so many different qualities come together to make athletes successful. And not when gender distinctions are changing so rapidly.

At its core, the sports world rigidly separating men and women will perpetually struggle to adapt to increasingly nuanced gender distinctions. In June, the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction in the United States to offer an X gender, signifying a neutral gender, on its drivers licenses. In March, a transgender New Zealand woman crushed her competition in her first international weight-lifting meet, and a transgender boy won a Texas state championship in girls wrestling.

Not every governing body is equipped to rule on these kind of eligibility questions. Not every athlete fits into this box, or that one.

To Chand, though, the issue of hyperandrogenism in sports is clear cut. She grew up as a girl. At 21, she is a proud young woman. She wants to race as one.

On Saturday, she will. But in the coming months, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide whether letting her continue to do so is fair.

What if it gets it wrong?

Read the original here:
What Qualifies a Woman to Compete as a Woman? The Ugly Fight Is Here Again - New York Times

Your Full Name
Your Email
Your Phone Number
Select your age (30+ only)	30313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120
Select Your US State	Select Your StateAlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWashington,DCWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
Program Choice	Select Your ProgramInjectable HGHInjectable TestoteroneInjectable SermorelinInjectable Weight LossInjectable HCG DietInjectable Vitamins
Confirm over 30 years old	Yes
Confirm that you resident in USA	Yes
This is a Serious Inquiry	Yes
Message:

Home » Testosterone » What Qualifies a Woman to Compete as a Woman? The Ugly Fight Is Here Again – New York Times