The Death Of The Olympic Movement?

[davidm]

The articles below are cut and paste from the Daily Telegraph to save readers the trouble of registering with the publication.

Is it right or justifiable in any way that a man be allowed to compete in sports as a woman on the basis of wearing a frock for a couple of years? Going one step further, have the Olympics committed one blunder too many this time? Is it time to call a halt to the games once and for all?

Looking on the bright side, if the new rules are implemented Thailand should win the "women's" volleyball in 2008 without any problems.

Forget the anabolic steroids, wear a dress

By Simon Hart

(Filed: 22/02/2004)

Male athletes aiming to win Olympic medals without resorting to banned drugs could soon have a new, legal way of gaining an advantage over their rivals - wear a dress for two years and then compete as a woman.

This week the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the leading body of world sport, will decide whether to amend its rules to allow transsexuals who have undergone a sex change to compete under their new gender.

That proposal is controversial enough, since most sex changes are man-to-woman and critics say those transsexuals will retain unfair advantages of height and strength over female opponents.

The IOC is, however, preparing to go one stage further and allow transsexuals who have not had sex-change surgery to compete under their new gender so long as they have "lived as a woman" for two years.

Supporters of the proposal argue that it is about "equal opportunities" and "human rights", but many senior figures in athletics say that it will put female athletes at a severe disadvantage if they are forced to compete against "men dressed as women".

The IOC's move follows a recommendation from its medical commission. The IOC has refused to discuss the issue until after its executive board meets in Athens on Saturday.

The proposed changes would require the IOC to reintroduce gender-testing for athletes, a practice that it phased out before the Sydney Olympics in 2000 on the grounds of sexual discrimination.

The IOC's decision will be eagerly awaited by Claire Ashton, formerly a West Mercia policeman called Tony Ashton, who is involved in a legal battle with the British governing body for time-trial cycling.

She claims that she was sexually discriminated against by being asked to take a gender test after competing in the 2002 national 24-hour time-trial championship. Ashton, who has had full sex-change surgery, has postponed her action until after the Government's new Gender Recognition Bill becomes law.

Lord Moynihan, the shadow minister for sport, who won a rowing silver medal at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, said that unless the IOC established clear medical criteria for sex-change athletes, the new rules would make a mockery of sport.

He has written to Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, calling for clear criteria "to protect competitive sport and ensure fair competition . . . especially when considering transsexuals acquiring a new legal gender without undergoing surgical treatment".

He told the Telegraph: "If they don't have any criteria then there will be nothing to stop a top 100 metres runner saying 'I am a woman', and turning up without even having surgery.

"In the extreme position of someone like Dwain Chambers wishing to run the 100 metres as a woman, it is obvious that he is not a woman, but there has to be some sort of panel to which such a case would have to be referred."

The proposed changes are causing alarm among sportswomen. Karen Pickering, a British swimmer and the Commonwealth 200-metre freestyle champion, said that she would only feel comfortable about competing against a transsexual if it could be proved that she was not gaining an unfair advantage. "Nobody wants to be prejudiced but you have to maintain a level playing field."

Craig Reedie, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, said: "There is clearly an unfairness in a situation whereby somebody born a man changes to a woman but retains much of the man's physical strength." He doubted, however, whether the IOC wanted to bring back gender testing after a long fight to get rid of it following its introduction in 1966.

Ewa Klobukowska, a Polish sprinter, was the first woman to fail the test when, at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, doctors said that she had "one chromosome too many to be declared a woman for the purposes of athletic competition".

The only known example of deliberate cheating came in 1955 when the German athlete, Hermann Ratjen, admitted that he had pretended to be a woman and had competed in the female high-jump at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. He finished fourth.

The Gender Recognition Bill, currently going through Parliament, may give full legal rights - including new birth certificates - to transsexuals even if they do not have an operation.

The Bill includes an amendment exempting sport from the legislation that would leave eligibility rules for competitions up to individual sporting governing bodies - but those bodies will take their lead from the IOC.

Gender games

(Filed: 22/02/2004)

Dora Ratjen, the German finalist in the women's high jump at the 1936 Berlin Olympic, was anatomically more equipped for the pole vault. Twenty years later, "Dora" revealed that he was actually Herman and had been persuaded by the Nazis to pass himself off as a woman.

In future, no such deception may be required. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to consider allowing transsexuals to compete in women's events without having undergone gender reassignment surgery. Males would simply need to convince a "gender recognition panel" that they were born into the wrong sex.

If one's sexual identity is to be reduced to a question of what one feels oneself to be, it is hard to see what there is to stop the principle being extended to other matters. If a Frenchman felt sufficiently British, for example, he could compete for Britain, and an able-bodied athlete who felt himself to be disabled could win a gold medal at the Paralympics.

The new rules could too easily reduce the Olympics to farce, although precedent suggests that, when men take on the image of women, they begin to perform like women. The IOC would almost certainly have rescinded Ratjen's medal had there been any medal to rescind. In fact, he came fourth.

[mouse]

Some things I just am not ready for. I don't have anything against Ladyboys but do not want my kids to compete with them in sports or shower with them afterwards.

[davidm]

Avoid gymnastics, Mouse. The National Sports Centre has gymnastics facilities next to the volleyball court and they share changing rooms etc.

[Jeepz]

I'm kind of curious what the women have to say about this. Any feedback from female sports figures on competing against the regendered?

Jeepz