Caster Semenya.
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| Caster Semenya |
The two-time Olympic gold medalist in the women's 800 meter race.
An athlete who identifies as a female, yet has male testes which continuously generate testosterone levels equal to that of a male.
In spite of this testosterone-generated muscle-building and enhanced oxygen-carrying capacity, Semenya has been allowed to compete as a woman in woman's elite track events. I posted about this matter twice in 2016 (see my August 24, 2016 post below), and stated I did not believe it was fair to the rest of the female competitors to allow Semena to compete as a female. I felt then as I do now, that Semena's greatly increased testosterone level gives her a competitive advantage not attainable by the other female athletes, and therefore creates an unequal playing field.
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport recently agreed with me. The Court ruled (2-1) that if Semenya wants to keep participating in at major track international competitions, she must do one of the following:
- Take hormone-suppressing drugs and reduce her testosterone levels below five nanomoles per liter for six months before competing, and maintain those lowered levels; or
- If she chooses to not reduce and maintain lowered testosterone levels, she must compete against men; or
- She can enter competitions for intersex athletes, if any are offered.
Caster Semenya Has No Female Sex Chromosomes,
Only Male Sex Chromosomes
Oh, and by the way, the Court's ruling also stated that Semenya's genetic testing showed that she has only XY Chromosomes, or Male Sex Chromosomes. She has no ... zero ... XX Chromosomes, or Female Sex Chromosomes. You can learn more about that finding and related technical information
here. Semenya was born with male testes and no female reproductive organs
Some people are arguing that the Court's decision is not fair to Semenya, as she identifies as a female and her high testosterone levels are naturally produced.
I don't buy that argument. Why? Well, if the Court's decision is truly unfair to Semenya, it is also unfair that female athletes are prohibited from taking anabolic steroids, which would allow them to compete with Caster Semenya on a level playing field.
Also, in elite sporting events, why should it matter at all if an athlete "identifies" as female or male? If a person identifies as a fish, do we then need to create an Olympic Fish Category so the fish-identifiers are not discriminated against? Geesh!
Lastly, if males who conveniently identify as female are allowed to compete as females in elite sporting events, the female sporting divisions will be flooded with male athletes who use this permission to game the system. After all, winners of Olympic and other major sporting event can earn $$$ millions in sponsorship fees and royalties. We may never see a biological female on the podium again.
~~ Originally posted August 24, 2016 ~~
I
posted about the Olympic Games yesterday, and mentioned Caster Semenya, the "intersex" female who crushed the women's 2016 Olympic 800 meter field to win the race.
Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has indicated the IAAF will likely challenge the ruling which stopped monitoring of female athletes who have extremely high testosterone levels.
The ruling allowed Caster Semenya to discontinue taking testosterone-lowering medication, which had the direct effect of a dramatic decrease in Semenya's middle-distance race times.
Read the article in the
Guardian here.
And here is the photo on the article. Pretty telling, huh?
I'm sorry, but this person should not be allowed to race as a woman. Being sensitive to Caster Semenya's physical deformities is one thing. But allowing her to compete as a woman is quite another thing, and is simply not fair to the rest of the competitors. No woman would naturally have this physical appearance, nor would a woman naturally have a sky-high testosterone level.
Hopefully common sense will prevail. But then again, as my late father-in-law said, "There is really no such thing as common sense, because sense is not common."
About Mary Rae Fouts, EA
Mary Rae Fouts, EA provides tax, insurance consulting, and expert witness services to clients throughout the United States. For more information visit
FoutsFinancialGroup.com.
Mary Rae Fouts
