The Sex of Athletes: One Issue, Many Variables

Butterfly · October 24, 2009, 07:04:55 PM

The Sex of Athletes: One Issue, Many Variables
The New York Times
By ALICE DREGER
Published: October 24, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/sports/25intersex.html 🔗

Track and field's world governing body has begun trying to devise new rules about who can compete as a woman. This comes nearly two months after being presented with the case of Caster Semenya, the South African runner whose sex was questioned when she won the 800-meter world championship.

Let's start with the reasonable assumption that we want to maintain gender segregation in most sports. It provides girls and women — half the planet's population — a real hope of winning. Without that hope, many may not bother.

The pickle, then, is how to maintain that segregation in the face of apparent challenges. A Renée Richards or a Caster Semenya doesn't come along too often, but often enough that there needs to be explicit rules about who is considered a woman. But what rules?

The Sex of Athletes: One Issue, Many Variables

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