Posts Tagged ‘athletics’
Caster Semenya: a test of biology not gender
Michelle Garcia looks at the fabulous athlete Caster Semenya.
Immediately after that mind-blowing 800-meter final at the 2009 World Championships, some of Semenya’s fellow competitors went for the jugular. Italy’s Elisa Cusma Piccione (sixth place) insisted she was a man. Russia’s Mariya Savinova (fifth place) urged journalists to “just look at her.” Other athletes whispered, stared, and laughed at her. Then came the IAAF.
Initially, the questions about her drastic improvement were linked to suspicions of doping. When those tests came back negative, she was subjected to rounds of gender testing, reportedly involving analysis by an endocrinologist, a psychologist, a gender expert, an internist; most humiliating was a gynecological exam that included photographing her genitals while her feet were in stirrups. Eventually she was cleared to compete on the international circuit again but not before she missed nearly a year of competition during the IAAF’s deliberation over her test results. The dirty secret here is that gender testing is common for women athletes — and yes, only women athletes.
Jason Kottke says Semenya is a hit by sexism, racism, bureaucracy. I’d say that everyone deserves a level playing field. Sport is all about rules. In 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport stopped the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule that females with ‘male levels’ of testosterone could not take part in in women’s races. Before that Semenya was impelled to take testosterone suppressants. The thinking is clear: testosterone is an indicator of performance. So what of transgender athletes? David Walsh notes: “To ensure fairness we need to define what is male and what is female. It can’t be down to a person’s preference.”
Semenya is doing the best with what nature gave her. And her best is exceptional. But the need is for her to be classified as male or female for the purpose of athletic competitions. Semenya is intersex: she possesses XY chromosomes but a body that appears female. And in her chosen sport, that might give her an advantage. An unfair one? What about having longer legs in the high jump or bigger feet in the swimming pool? Which genetic advantages are acceptable and which are not? And who gets to decide?
Run, Rude Boy! Cracking commentary as GB’s 4×100 relay team wins gold
Run, Rude Boy!
MY REPLAY COMMENTARY 😁 pic.twitter.com/XGO5lTrC5m
— Aurie Styla (@AurieStyla) August 12, 2017
Ortis Deley Gets Fired From C4’s Athletics Coverage Thanks To This Online Video: World’s Worst Sports Presenter
UNSURPRISINGLY, Channel 4 have shown the door to poor old Ortis Deley after he made a terrible hash of his presenting gig during the coverage of the IAAF world athletics championships.
You may recognise Deley from some children’s TV, as well as Channel 5’s The Gadget Show. He bumbled and muttered his way through a series of gawdawful links, getting everyone’s name wrong and generally being more stilted than a hostage telling a tabloid he’s fine.
As such, Deley has been fired from the main presenter role which will now be taken by Rick Edwards. Ortis will stay on the roster but his role has been “scaled back”, potentially to ‘tea boy’.
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Posted: 31st, August 2011 | In: Key Posts, TV & Radio | Comment (1)
China Athlete Speared By Javelin, Pictures
IN Guilin, Southern China, athlete Jian Liao has been speared by a javelin, through knee. To remove the piece of sports equipment, fire fighters set the javelin alight.
Liao, laydees and germs is a human kebab. The London Olympics has much to prove if Chain is to beaten in terms of raw athletic showmanship.
Liao is now much recovered and is keen to enter the thee-legged race a solo competitor…
As ever, much controversy in athletics.
Posted: 17th, September 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)
Chinese athlete thought she was a woman. She’s not
A Chinese athlete who won more than 40 medals has thrown most of them away after discovering she is not a woman. Gasp!
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Drugs cheat: I wish I’d lied earlier
BRITISH sprinter Dwain Chambers says he wishes he had continued to lie about using banned steroids. His justification for such a stance? Poor Dwain feels that he has not been forgiven since he owned up.
Damn honesty and its unfortunate consequences. (As Homer Simpson might say.)
Chambers made the bizarre admission during a radio interview with Victoria Derbyshire (the most patronising and annoying woman in the world, fact fans) on BBC Five Live.
Anorak often hears people say that drug cheats deserve forgiveness and a second chance, but using banned substances is rarely a one-off error of judgment – it’s a concerted, pre-meditated effort to cheat the system, rather than a lone lapse. So does Dwain deserve more sympathy. No, in a word.
Watch Chambers tie another noose for himself below:
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