The whole "just lower the testosterone level" is a specious argument. The male sports advantage starts before birth when the basic bits of us are being formed. All puberty does is accelerate, accentuate and cement in these differences between men and women. Less testosterone does not alter the shape of the pelvis, how the hip joints operate (which is why generally speaking, men are faster runners). It doesn't have an impact on lung capacity, muscle twitch time or anything else that make the physical differences between male and female athletes.
You are either happy to invest in fairness or you are not. Sport NZ is clearly not interested in fairness or in safeguarding the bodies of women. Just recently, there was yet another public moan about "why do girls quit playing sports?" Well going forward one reason will be that they know that despite any amount of training, they are never going to win against male bodied competitors who cheat their way to victory.
Allowing males to chemically diminish their natural physiological advantages to compete with women, as 'women", is actually so antithethical to whole concept of sporting excellence it is farcical. Sporting excellence is about human beings competing with intentionally honed physical prowess to demonstrate what a healthy body is capable of achieving. Taking drugs to lower physical performance is as ludricrously unethical as the other polarity of taking drugs to enhance the sportspersons ability.
Who'd have thought that in 2023 the biggest threat to the integrity of Sport in New Zealand is the organisation that is set up to look after sport.
Sport New Zealand are the real problem.
The whole "just lower the testosterone level" is a specious argument. The male sports advantage starts before birth when the basic bits of us are being formed. All puberty does is accelerate, accentuate and cement in these differences between men and women. Less testosterone does not alter the shape of the pelvis, how the hip joints operate (which is why generally speaking, men are faster runners). It doesn't have an impact on lung capacity, muscle twitch time or anything else that make the physical differences between male and female athletes.
You are either happy to invest in fairness or you are not. Sport NZ is clearly not interested in fairness or in safeguarding the bodies of women. Just recently, there was yet another public moan about "why do girls quit playing sports?" Well going forward one reason will be that they know that despite any amount of training, they are never going to win against male bodied competitors who cheat their way to victory.
Excellent comment.
Allowing males to chemically diminish their natural physiological advantages to compete with women, as 'women", is actually so antithethical to whole concept of sporting excellence it is farcical. Sporting excellence is about human beings competing with intentionally honed physical prowess to demonstrate what a healthy body is capable of achieving. Taking drugs to lower physical performance is as ludricrously unethical as the other polarity of taking drugs to enhance the sportspersons ability.