Bornstein: Intersex athletes face unfair rules

http://www.kansan.com/news/2009/sep/24/bornstein_intersex_athletes_face_unfair_rules/
Lauren Bornstein
9/24/09

Prove you are a woman or man. Right now. Why are you hesitating? This could decide whether you keep the gold medal for the 800-meter race you just won with a remarkable time. World 800 meter champion Caster Semenya of South Africa had to. She is the latest of professional athletes whose participation and achievements are in limbo because of their biological makeup.

Semenya has undergone gender tests ordered by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) according to the Sydney Morning Herald in an article published earlier this month.

The "irony" with the way things work is that if you do fit nicely into the discreet binary male or female role, you can transition and compete in the other role. However, they stop you competing in either if you don't fit nicely into it in the first place.

We live in a binary world for the most part.

I don't think it is clear cut on the fairness thing though. Is it fair to compete against someone that has a clear physical advantage in their makeup - but then how is this different from one woman being physically better than another women anyway? No it is probably not fair on Caster, but perhaps it is not fair on the other athletes either - there does not seem to be a win win here.

Can we forsee a day where all female athletes in certain sports are intersexed in some way just to be competetive? That seems like a natural progression to me as there are advantages to having a testosterone fueled body when it comes to athletics (maybe not for things like gymnastics though). It is also interesting how people can run potentially faster on prosthetic legs these days. Maybe elite sport will end up being something only for the super super-duper humans, the modified humans, the enhanced humans, the intersexed humans. Maybe training will take a back seat to modification.. racing robots.