Man competing as a woman

your ignorance knows no bounds.

I do have a legit question that I'm curious about Dave.  What is your opinion on people who are biologically male at birth competing in sports as a female after transitioning? 
I feel it's a very difficult situation because they obviously have biological advantages that the biological female participants do not have so it boils down to fairness in competitive sports.

i dont think they should be allowed for that reason.  However, being an jerk about it like some people above is entirely unnecessary.

well there you have it, science has determined it doesn't give an advantage

* as long as testosterone levels are under certain levels.

It's still an interesting dynamic because they don't allow females to take testosterone for performance gains, but the transgender is obviously having to take medication to get testosterone levels down to a certain level.  I don't know how you measure testosterone levels, but lets say 100 is acceptable so the transgender athlete gets it down to 100, but the biological females are at say 90.  They can't legally take testosterone to get up to the maximum allowed limit without it being considered doping.

As I said, it's very complicated and for the most part it's fairly an academic discussion because it's extremely rare for transgendered persons to be competing in high level sports.

I think it is funny that the focus is on testostrone levels, but physically the 2 sexes are quite different in the hip.  Men tend to run with more of a straight gait while women's legs tend to move out and around as they stride.  This makes a significant difference in speed and performance that should not be overlooked.  This is something that transition surgery would not change.

so...you realize that the transition surgery isn't the big deal here right?  a lot of changes come about with hormone therary, depending on when and how long you've undergone it.

Does the hip issue change?  I'm asking because I have no idea.

My limited understand, caveat.

If the therapy starts before or during puberty, it does.  After i'm not entirely sure.  I do know that the hormones can alter bone density, shift body fat, etc etc.  I'm not sure if it can change hip shape after they are fully formed in say a 45 year old man or something. Many (most?) of the ATHLETES competing at the olympic level, who have undergone hormone, and are in the peak of their athletic ability, to make the olympics after all.  Are probably pretty young.  I'd also imagine a woman born with very narrow hips isn't disqualified from racing.

and rogillio.  Have the actual equipment isn't really the issue here.  If you strapped a penis on a woman it wouldn't magically make her a faster runner or stronger weightlifter.  its the hormones.

From the IOC

Under the previous IOC guidelines, approved in 2003, athletes who transitioned from male to female or vice versa were required to have reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy in order to be eligible to compete.

Now, surgery will no longer be required, with female-to-male transgender athletes eligible to take part in men’s competitions “without restriction”.

Meanwhile, male-to-female transgender athletes will need to demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a certain cutoff point for at least one year before their first competition. [...]

How long it will take the athlete to reach the new cutoff limit will depend on individual cases, Ljungqvist said.

“If you change sex, you will have to have a hormone level below 10 for 12 months,” he said. “That does not mean a one-year guarantee. You don’t go below 10 from day one. It takes quite some time. It can take more than one year or two years.”

I have a bigger prostate

FIRST OF ALL.  The women's 1500m free record is 15:25.48 by katie ledecky

Yeah...........ok.........sure.

I'd encourage you to stick around though.  We encourage diverse points of view here and it's one of the best places we have to discuss this type of stuff.
Many of us have been here for years and know each other very well (in an online capacity) so we tend to poke fun and prod, but more out of familiarity than anyone being mean.

Personally the people I like most on BT are those that I disagree with here.  dmiller thinks I'm a knuckle dragger, but I still really like him.  ;-)   (see, poking fun)

As for the ignoring of penis's and boobs I'll only speak for myself (as a knuckle dragger).  I cannot ignore boobs and if there's naked ones in front of me, I most definitely am not going to ignore them.  <hides head>
Come to think of it, I get a bit uncomfortable when the creepy dudes walk around the locker room with their junk hanging out as well.  hah