I'm no expert so I won't go ahead and make some definitive, sweeping statements on something I know little about, but logic dictates that anyone who has gone through puberty with XY genes is going to have muscles developed under the influence of a hell of a lot more testosterone than the average XX, which may or may not be considered an unfair advantage.
I think you're missing my point a bit. What I meant was that obviously transsexuals are rare in world championship level sports and that every one of them will have a different history of what for his or her competitors would equate to a case of steroid abuse (XY transsexuals producing way more testosterone themselves than the average XX and XX transsexuals getting testosterone through hormone therapy).
So the IOC, IAAF or whoever's responsible would have to look at the athletes individually for which they need to be given a chance.
Again assuming that she is indeed XY the whole current situation could have easily been avoided by talking to the sporting bodies in private before the championship. Right now essentially she is dealt with like an athlete who's first doping test retuned positive for showing signs of having unusually large levels of steroids which would not be nescessary if the whole thing had been cleared before the competition.
You're thinking of some german girl that was quite present in the press here I presume. Like you I really dont know about the situation in Africa but South Africa isnt exactly world renowned for being progressive.
To me, the logic you present (albeit without conviction) reads like wearing armbands it really does. Mind you, i've always been drawn to those sports where women and men can compete equally which is why I love motor racing - I know that many forum goers have opinions on women in racing, but the vast majority of them I would thrash on the track...
There is a grey area of ethics versus sporting purity, and you get to the question of 'what is a woman/man' and the definition of gender in any sport where women and men compete individually. In the ideal world gender wouldn't matter at all, but it does, and seperate leagues for transsexuals would be as bad as apartheid - and would be morally wrong.
None-the-less I can see how an athlete who is transsexual is perceived to have an advantage - so where do you draw the line? Is it ok for them to compete provided they don't win? Plenty of non transsexuals have dominated their respective disciplines, why can't a transsexual do the same?
The problem in her specific case appears to be that she was selected only a few weeks ago after smashing her own previous personal best, this sudden increase in form put her onto the world stage. My understanding is that at that point the IAAF responded by starting their gender tests, but the world championships came about only a few weeks later.
Right now, whatever happens, she appears to be in a public relations dissaster, this whole Fannygate affair is well beyond what the poor girl should be expected to deal with, i'm sure without even asking, she just wants to run races.
I'm sure I wouldnt stand a chance against you on track but that won't keep me from saying that the reason women can be successful in racing is that there arent any parking garage columns on race tracks (mind you a friend very recently has had his car damaged badly by his wife's inability to not drive into a shopping trolley garage or whatevery they're called plus I really love playing with stereotypes so excuse my apparent bias).
Oh absolutely but considering what lengths people will go to to win a world championship the sporting bodies will have to make sure that eg a XX transsexual doesn't abuse her status to inject large quantities of testosterone under the umbrella of hormone replacement therapy.
Personally I envy neither the athletes nor the sporting bodies who have to thread that thin line between perfectly normal hormone chaos and unfair advantages gained through it.
Simply put... how the hell would I know. Similarly where do you draw the line between whats considered the effect of good old high altitude training and EPO or extremely good genes and doping?
I don't see why they shouldnt be able to either, but it sure doesn't make doping rules any simpler.
Which is suspicious in its own right frankly.
I absolutely agree and the case has been dealt with in a way that leaves lots to be desired.
Good god, it is as well Top marks for spotting that one
Coincidence, yeah right...
Ohhh I can assure you i have. And it was a direct result of having a pretty major accident.
At the time i was fit, very fit. Not your average play a few sports here and there kind of fitness. I was an international class athlete. I had a professionional coach, trained four days a week and competed in high level athletic events almost every weekend during the summer, and skiing competitions, cross country events and a very tough winter training programme during the winter. Trust me, i was damned fit. Yet, i still couldn't hold a light to the fitness levels of these world class athletes we're talking about here. Honestly, you can't even begin to imagine the levels of fitness these guys are performing at. By way of an analogy, if Usain Bolt was an F1 car, i was a road going Ferrari, and yer average Joe who plays a bit of footy every now and then is a Ford Mondeo.
For various reasons i don't particularly want to talk about what happened to me, but, i do have first hand knowledge that high levels of fitness, and a positive attitude greatly aids recovery after accident, injury, illness and surgery. Yes the initial aftermath of surgery does take it's toll, but the recovery time thereafter and the return to similar levels of fitness are greatly enhanced by being extremely fit before hand. It's a known medical fact.
I personally don't know any transexuals, but a friend of mine is intersexed, and she's as mad as a box of frogs. She's a great lass and i love her dearly, but she's a real crazy woman. Whether thats anything to do with being a hermaphrodite or not i dunno, she had a bit of a mad upbringing. But, she's the most open, spontaneous, fun loving and gregarious person i've ever met. You'd never guess in a million years that she's intersexed if you met her, she's not butch, doesn't have a deep voice and doesn't act manly in anyway. She considers herself female, and there's no denying she is, it's as simple as that.
But anyway, i don't remember claiming this Caster Seyamena girl was a transexual, so i'm not really sure why it's being discussed ?
Bob linked to a page regading an alternative effect of muscle memory above. I'd never heard of that particuler effect before, but it's a very plausible explanation. But, again, i've no medical knowledge of hormones and how they effect muscle development, stamina and fitness levels within the human body. All i can tell you is, when the wifes hormones were kicking off, i never got much sleep :icon23:
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Which would warrant some use of the special Acme Easy Stern ointment which is easily classified in the performance enhancing substance category. So there you have it.
Just drop her pants, and see if there's hanging something.
I think it's a woman, but something went wrong when she was growing before she was born, so maybe it's a man, but not a peni$ etc, like manly built etc, therefore she's so quick. I hope...
According to the BBC news, semenya has got about 3 times the normal level of testosterone in her body than a woman should have on average, make of that what you will.
Fears about men competing in women's events were first raised in the early 1960s, when Russian athletes Irina and Tamara Press set 26 world records and won five Olympic gold medals – Tamara in the discus and shot putt and Irina in the hurdles and pentathlon.
The sisters' superiority over all other competitors cast suspicion over their gender. They disappeared from the sport when gender testing was introduced at the 1966 European Track and Field Championships
I'd be very interested to see where you got the sports-science or even basic scientific evidence for that statement.
Testosterone aids in the hypertrophy of skeletal musculature, (among other things), and skeletal musculature is (semi) permanent, as long as you give your body a reason to keep it, ie stimulate it with weight training. Testosterone levels are a large part of why women can't build up the same levels of skeletal muscles as men. If the athelete in question had been born a man and became transgendered only a year or two ago then they would have built up a lot of musculature that no woman with normal levels of testosterone would be able to achieve. Whilst Testosterone is very important in the maintenance of muscle mass, mucular atrophy is a slow process, (assuming nutrition is maintained at normal levels).
This article makes reference to a very small study on the matter, clearly showing that even 3 years after surgery and continous hormone treatment transgendered individuals still retain significant amounts of musculature over naturally born women.
"Gooren and Bunck found muscle mass of M-F transgendered individuals decreased after surgery and three years of hormone therapy. 19 M-F transgendered individuals were used in the study and compared to male and females not taking hormone therapy. The research shows transgendered M-F have greater thigh muscle mass than females. The study was published in the European Journal of Endocrinology (vol. 151 p.425)"
Good god, it is as well 
Top marks for spotting that one 
