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.

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[–] 46 points 10 months ago* (23 children)

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.

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  • [+] 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)
  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Webbed fingers and toes, and disproportionately long arms for more power.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

    'cause I know I feel welcome, and not completely othered and invalidated when I'm forced to play on a team that is otherwise entirely men, whom have athletic advantage over me

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

    Who said it would be entirely men? Chess had this format forever and any woman that had the ability to compete in the top level open tournaments was competing in them.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (3 children)

    Same chess where men creep on women and female grandmasters report being harassed whenever they try to compete alongside men?

    I don't think women feel welcome when you can accost them and if they say anything they're just a bitch lying to cause problems.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    So instead of addressing the misogyny, let's sweep it under the rug by not allowing women to compete in the top tournaments? By your logic, shouldn't we just make a third transgender category to solve the transphobia?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (1 child)

    My logic? People are acting like men's divisions are the open divisions when it's very much closed to anyone not wanting to endure constant harassment. I don't think adding facts to the discussion implies any logic aside from the logic in valuing the truth.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

    Ok, so I misunderstood and you actually agree we should have an open (mixed gender) division? Just adding we also need to work on preventing harassment and discrimination?

    Otherwise, you are adding the logic stating that because harassment exists, we shouldn't have mixed gender tournaments. Which implies we also need separate transgender tournaments, since they are also at risk for harassment in the existing ones.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    Couldn't there just be an open category in addition to men's and women's?

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  • [–] 21 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    I don't think men need a protected category for most sports, so having both would just be duplication.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    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.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It would be dominated by men.

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  • [–] -4 points 10 months ago
    1. Thats not necessarily true. Depends on the event.

    2. 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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