Caster Semenya wins Olympic gold but faces more scrutiny as IAAF presses case

[naotmaa]

Comments

[eveofrevolution]

[sugartitty]

IA

[amyura]

Absolutely. I was a swimmer, but I'm REALLY short and develop bulky muscles generally. My body type is actually good for breast stroke, which incidentally is one of the strokes where we don't see Phelps standing out.

It's the Olympics. These athletes are the best of the best of the best. Working hard at that level is a given, so I don't see why anyone needs to whine about how hard they work and still not medal.

[invisiblegirlx]

what makes this even grosser is the intersection of racism and misogyny. The Canadian athlete who came in 4th was talked about as if she had been somehow robbed of a medal by people who didn't deserve to compete. It's really very disturbing. These women are naturally gifted runners because of the way they were born, just like any other top athlete.

[invisiblegirlx]

also just to mention that she was a full 10 seconds behind the men even with her so called advantages, so I don't think it's fair to act as if she can run as fast as men because of her condition.

[star_maple]

This is so incredibly tricky, but also important and I've been watching this case and others like it for years wondering how it will all turn out in the end. On the one hand, we're all starting to realize that the gender binary is a social construct rather than an absolute, and operating within a binary is problematic. On the other hand, if we don't have gender distinctions in sport it'll pretty much be impossible for women to compete against men in most sports, and we don't want women to be locked out of athletics. But anywhere you put that arbitrary line between women and men, you're going to get outliers who don't fit in your boxes and it's not fair to them to leave them out of athletics either

[amyura]

“However hard she goes away and trains, however hard Jenny Meadows goes and trains, they are never going to be able to compete with that level of strength and recovery that those levels of elevated testosterone brings.”

Boo-effing-hoo. You know what? I'm four foot ten. No matter how hard I go away and train, I will never be a good swimmer or basketball player. Maybe I could have been a gymnast based on my size, but I'm also not flexible no matter how much I stretch.

[omimouse]

This idea that men are inherently better at any kind of physical activity needs to die a swift death.

Jackie Mitchell, Bille Jean King, and Katie Ledecky are just the first three counter-examples that I could think of off the top of my head, and I'd like to point out that the theme running through all three of those articles seems to be male outrage at a woman being better than them.

[brittdreams]

You should add Simone Biles to that list. During interviews, she has said guys don't like training with her because they can't execute the same moves as her and sometimes botch the landing when trying her signature move (the Biles). During the world broadcast coverage of the individual all-around, Jonathan Horton, a former gymnast, talked about how Simone used to train at his gym because hers didn't have a foam pit. And he said it would bother him that she could get higher in the air than she could.

Jonathan Horton in 2015: “She is the first female gymnast I have ever seen that is as powerful or maybe more than the most powerful male gymnast.” (see here)

[omimouse]

Thankee for the link; I had not heard about that. Sadly, not very surprising.

I have yet to find a material more fragile than the male ego.