"*IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said: “We will have no discrimination. The IOC will respect human rights.”
Schamasch said transsexual athletes will be eligible for the Olympics once they have passed a certain amount of time after sex change surgery. The exact length of the waiting period hasn’t been determined.
“The trend is to have an ineligibility period. Then after certain conditions have been fulfilled, the athlete will be able to compete in his or her new sex,” he added."*
When has this been a problem?
The body goes through such dramatic changes during this procedure that I don`t see how this can be addressed fairly.
Steroids are illegal, how can a regiment that completely changes the structure of the body be accepted?
The idea seems to be to prevent competitors in certain fields (track-and-field especially) from changing gender just before the games, which might (and probably would) grant an unfair advantage.
The Olympics has had, if I recall correctly, sex tests since the 1968 Summer Games (for women only), and there have been people who’ve failed them.
I don’t have a problem with it philosophically, but say a man converts to a woman - how much of the physical advantages (muscle mass, bone structure, etc.) inherent to men are still present?
I don’t think it would be fair if a woman competed, but still had the physical advantages in men. That’s why there are different competitions in the first place.
I am sure someone who was never going to be of Olympic tinalist standard as a man would strongly consider a sex change opperation to be a contender as a woman. I susspect for many athletes at such a high level their sport is everything to them.
Like restrictions on drug taking, the rules are in part to stop cheating but also to protect athletes from doing damaging things to themselves. A set of rules that would stop athletes from being able to have a sex change for an unfair advantage, but would not disscriminate against those who have a sex change for a more genuine reason would seem to be necessary. That seems to be what the IOC are trying to do.
Muscle mass, bone structure and physical strength vary widely even within genders and within sports – look at the wide range of physiques in women’s tennis, as a for instance – so I’m not sure why reassignment surgery should bar one from sports competition if being taller than average (the aforementioned Davenport) or very muscular (see the Williams sisters or Jennifer Capriati) doesn’t. Does a 5"8’, 135lb. MtF transsexual fully loaded with a post-operative dose of female hormones have an advantage over a 5"11’, 170lb. born female whose training has never been interrupted for recuperation from an extremely intensive surgery? Does a 5"11’ 170lb. MtF transsexual hold a different advantage than a 5"11’ 170lb. born female?
As an aside, none of the women who have failed the test that the IOC performs have been males impersonating women in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage. Most have been physically female with chromosomal or genetic anomalies such as extra chromosomes (something which occurs in 6 in 1000 people) or androgen insensitivity.
It’s also worth noting that the International Amateur Athletic Federation recommended the abolishing of the “gender verification” tests more than a decade ago, not only because there has never been a case of a female impersonator, but because there is no evidence that the women whose anomalies cause them to be banned from competition have any biological advantage to begin with.
If the testing is, at long last, done away with, there would be no way (nor any reason) for anyone to be aware that a competitor is transsexual unless the competitor makes it known themselves. Sounds like a plan to me.
Wait a minute… Don’t post-op transexuals need to take fairly heavy doses of testosterone or estrogen for the rest of their live? Would this be considered taking trugs to enahnce performance (especially with regard to testosterone)?
It is my opinion that you should have to use your God given body (pre-op) and what enhancements you can gain by training only. No surgery, drugs, or body altering regimens. If you’re an Olympic athlete you should have to refrain from a sex-change procedure unless you desire to withdraw from competition.
Generally, you have extensive training in the specific event(s) long before you reach the point if your life that you would decide to undergo such a procedure. You would, I think, be trying to gain advantage. How could you prove otherwise?
I’ve lost a lot of strength since going on HRT. I don’t think a male-to-female transsexual athlete would be at any significant advantage after having been on HRT for a year or more.
IMO, the IOC’s rules appear to be based on empirical evidence and fairly balance the need for fairness in competition with the need to recognize the human rights of transsexuals. The IOC’s old policy of sex typing also unfairly discriminated against intersexuals.
whuckfistle, you’d disqualify any athlete who had had any sort of surgery or used any form of medication, ever?
Not unless they had steel ligaments implanted or were on special performance enhancing meds.
This process dramatically changes the body to the point that you no longer have the package you were born with.
To keep everything fair, you should use your God given body and any amount of training you can tolerate. No medical procedures, or altering chemicals.