Cut From Yahoo News:
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Transsexuals were cleared Monday to compete in the Olympics for the first time.
Under a proposal approved by the IOC executive board, athletes who have undergone sex-change surgery will be eligible for the Olympics if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy.
The decision, which covers both male-to-female and female-to-male cases, goes into effect starting with the Athens Olympics in August.
The IOC had put off a decision in February, saying more time was needed to consider all the medical issues.
Some members had been concerned whether male-to-female transsexuals would have physical advantages competing against women.
Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However, doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the situation of transsexuals competing in high-level sports was "rare but becoming more common."
IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said no specific sports had been singled out by the ruling.
"Any sport may be touched by this problem," he said. "Until now, we didn't have any rules or regulations. We needed to establish some sort of policy."
Until 1999, the IOC conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but the screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games.
One of the best known cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, who played on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s.
In March, Australia's Mianne Bagger became the first transsexual to play in a pro golf tournament.
Michelle Dumaresq, formerly Michael, has competed in mountain bike racing for Canada.
Richards, now a New York opthamologist, was surprised by the IOC decision and was against it. She said decisions on transsexuals should be made on an individual basis.
"Basically, I think they're making a wrong judgment here, although I would have loved to have that judgment made in my case in 1976," she said.
"They're probably looking for trouble down the line. There may be a true transsexual — not someone who's nuts and wants to make money — who will be a very good champion player, and it will be a young person, let's say a Jimmy Connors or a Tiger Woods, and then they'll have an unequal playing field.
"In some sports, the physical superiority of men over women is very significant."
Originally posted by Lindsay.."Likewise, it is interesting to consider the basic motivation behind separate mens and womens competitions and awards. If we have separate competions for women because they are not as tall or as muscular wouldn't it be better to have height and weight classes instead? There was a thread started on April Fools about FINA introducing additional regions and/or catagories which was met with howls of protest about trying to make everyone feel good by winning at something. Strangely no one brought up that having separate male and female catagories has exactly that purpose, women would be discouraged if they had to compete with males at the very top levels of competition. Obviously there is more overlap at lower levels like masters."
Thats stretching it a bit. Lets face the biological facts. Men have more testosterone. They in turn have more muscle mass. Therefore they are the stronger sex....
:rolleyes: That was hard to admit..:D BUT it is the truth. Please don't give the IOC any more ideas to mess up our sport.
"Leave it to Ellison to spark some controversy."
Yes, I guess in practical terms, I sparked this controversy because I felt it needed discussion. Decisions such as this could have a wide ranging impact on our sport (and others) for generations to come. I weigh in with Wayne’s post that addressed the past STATE run drug programs in China and East Germany. It is not a far leap to connecting the dots to countries that will do anything to win gold medals in the Olympics. What is next? What ramifications and impact will this have on future Olympic Games? Are we soon to see past records with time lines such as BT (before transsexual) or AT (after transsexual) in woman’s sports?
As to my posts…Well, I attempted to use humor to get my point across. I am not homophobic, transgender phobic or anything else closely related to those titles. But, I have my opinions on how things should be in this world and my opinions are just as valid as the next guys or girls or transsexual or whatever….. I do not have to support these actions, but I do respect their right to do whatever they want and I hope my posts are an indication of such.
Lastly, I was concerned that I would get a vacation on this forum for expressing my views through humor….and…as it turned out…my posts are....shall we say..... pale in comparison.
If the athlete is genetically a male (XY chromosomes) he should compete with the men. On the other hand, maybe we're too hung up on chromosomes. Perhaps we should enter a dolphin and kick some serious tail. I'm not a xenophobe and have no problem swimming against a fish (actually an aquatic mammal).
Originally posted by Tom Ellison
Cut From Yahoo News:
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Transsexuals were cleared Monday to compete in the Olympics for the first time. ....
One of the best known cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, who played on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s.
Richards, now a New York opthamologist, was surprised by the IOC decision and was against it. She said decisions on transsexuals should be made on an individual basis.
"Basically, I think they're making a wrong judgment here, although I would have loved to have that judgment made in my case in 1976," she said.
"They're probably looking for trouble down the line. There may be a true transsexual — not someone who's nuts and wants to make money — who will be a very good champion player, and it will be a young person, let's say a Jimmy Connors or a Tiger Woods, and then they'll have an unequal playing field.
"In some sports, the physical superiority of men over women is very significant."
I, too, doubt that transexuals could get by the physical and mental hurdles to compete as an Olympic athelete. I, too, agree w/ Ms. Richards that the IOC is making a wrong judgement here.
Originally posted by LindsayNB
So far most of the concern has been about men becoming women and winning medals, for people who advocate swimming according to your chromosomes, are you comfortable about a female to male transexual who has undergone months of (male) hormone therapy competing as a women?
But back to the point, I don't see any hope of the discussion progressing if we don't start by defining what the principles we are using to make judgements are.
Although "she" would have "female" genes, a woman that changes into a man would have to take testosterone to maintain their chosen sex characteristics. Testosterone levels are checked at the international level. If they have acceptable, "female", levels of testosterone, there is no real reason they could not compete as a woman. I personally would feel weird swimming with them but, that is my honest opinion.
Lets agree to disagree!
Well, I agree this issue is probably one of the most complex ones, And like someone of you, I believe that you should keep the gender you are born with. But some people go ahead and change their gender and should they not be allowed to try out for a sport because of that. As someone said Ms Richards who had that operation herself said it should be done on a case by case basis. And as someone else stated certain authorian governments could use this to their advantaged.
