Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events • Hacker News Board

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by hananova » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

j_w wrote: post #292

hananova wrote: post #240

This also bans cis women with genetic anomalies. Until men with genetic anomalies are equally banned from sports (for example, being an outlier in height for basketball), this is nothing more than a misogynist attempt to make women’s sport as unimpressive and average as possible. Rules set by mostly old men of course. Remember, sport is and has always been about statistical outliers competing. Fairness has never been…

Well I think it bans women that thought/think that they are cis but actually aren't, which is a bit of a different story. A fairly tragic one. Intersex/trans/anything else people just don't really have a clean fit into a lot of places, which is unfortunate. > this is nothing more than a misogynist attempt to make women’s sport as unimpressive and average as possible. Rules set by mostly old men of course. Well, not r…

Interesting how it’s “unfortunate” if it doesn’t affect men. The blatant hypocrisy is disgusting. There have been women banned from women’s sports who then later literally gave birth, if giving birth doesn’t qualify one as female, then what are we doing as a society?

Your linked article is also a massive category error. The people whose opinion should be polled should be actual competing athletes, that’s how the rules should be set in a sport. The biggest anti-trans athlete is some 5th place loser that couldn’t handle sharing 5th place with another woman and had to instead cry about it, only way to get in the news at 5th place, I suppose.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by zahlman » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

mvc wrote: post #375

appreciatorBus wrote: post #341

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They do not make that decision, and it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by frumplestlatz » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

tdb7893 wrote: post #321

frumplestlatz wrote: post #258

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Like most things in biologicy, categorization is a nightmare unless you have a very specific use case in mind. In this case I'm talking about women phenotypically and socially (including self-identity) and especially athletes assigned female at birth. These women are clearly not just "males".

As far as I understand the ontology of human phenotype, it is unchanged by use of cross-sex hormone therapy.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by EA-3167 » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

lynndotpy wrote: post #371

EA-3167 wrote: post #333

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Speaking for myself I believe that trans people and non-binary people should be accommodated, but there’s a contextual limit. When it comes to equal protection, employment, healthcare, medical access, bathrooms and a dozen other issues it’s a no-brainer in favor of accommodating people. Ironically the sports divide is probably the single area where having some physical advantages isn’t a bonus. It’s also near and dea…

In the Olympics, it appears trans athletes are still a minority among the group of athletes who are excluded because of sex characteristics. Most of the athletes impacted by the ever-stricter testosterone limits in the Olympics are cis women. Such a league would include cisgender former Olympic athletes who had to undergo forms of HRT in order to qualify. When discussing trans people in sports, the most salient conte…

Is anyone worth listening to seriously suggesting that informal childhood sports are somehow equivalent to programs that can define academic or professional careers?

Edit I’d add that T screening in sports exists primarily to find dopers, not people trying to pass.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by nxor2 » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #239

lelanthran wrote: post #205

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Lia Thomas. Why are all these innocent questioners asking for more evidence not familiar with the existence of the evidence they are asking for? Considering they feel so strongly about it, they should already have seen all this.

Pre-transition Lia Thomas wasn’t mid-tier, but I suspect you already knew that

I was a college athlete. Trust me, this topic has been discussed ad infinitum. People were not even allowed to speak out. In addition, the NCAA meet is very competitive and Thomas pushed someone out of the meet and out of finals. Girls work their entire life for this meet just for it to end this way. It's shockingly sad on so many levels. It's not common, but it's not right that people were not even allowed to speak up. Former swimmers there have done interviews.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by blippz » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

space_fountain wrote: post #338

decimalenough wrote: post #281

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The article is saying that there are fairly credible denials no?

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Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by Aurornis » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

delecti wrote: post #377

Aurornis wrote: post #363

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Sadly, it's not possible to "delay puberty" until later in life without permanent consequences. Puberty cannot simply be resumed later. Puberty blockers alter hormones dramatically during critical growth phases. The changes can't be reversed later as if hormones were not altered during critical phases if the person changes their mind.

It is absolutely possible, and it has been done in cisgender children with precocious puberty for decades. > Puberty blockers alter hormones dramatically during critical growth phases. Which is generally the goal. It is of course not possible to retroactively have allowed puberty to progress as though the blockers had never been taken, but it is possible to cease the blockers and allow it to resume, again, as is done…

> It is absolutely possible, and it has been done in cisgender children with precocious puberty for decades

Precocious puberty is a condition in which puberty happens earlier than it's supposed to.

The goal of puberty blockers in precocious puberty is to delay puberty until the correct age and physiological growth window.

Puberty blocker in precocious puberty are also not used to induce hormonal profiles that are different than the body's eventual genetic set point, just to delay them until typical puberty ages.

Delaying puberty until it aligns with the body's expected pubertal ages is completely different. You cannot extrapolate and claim this as evidence that we can safely delay puberty until adulthood, well beyond pubertal age.

> but it is possible to cease the blockers and allow it to resume, again

I don't understand what you're trying to claim, but ceasing the medications does not reverse the changes they made during critical teenage growth windows.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by hananova » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

dwedge wrote: post #276

hananova wrote: post #240

This also bans cis women with genetic anomalies. Until men with genetic anomalies are equally banned from sports (for example, being an outlier in height for basketball), this is nothing more than a misogynist attempt to make women’s sport as unimpressive and average as possible. Rules set by mostly old men of course. Remember, sport is and has always been about statistical outliers competing. Fairness has never been…

Men who supplement testosterone are already banned if caught.

That if caught is doing very heavy lifting. You can only get caught if you dope to an amount that’s impossible to see naturally, and that’s a very high amount.

Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by conradfr » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

Philadelphia wrote: post #264

themgt wrote: post #233

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The IOC policy is specifically that athletes need to test negative for the SRY gene to be eligible to compete in the female category. Imane Khelif won gold in the 2024 Summer Olympics women's boxing event, and has since admitted to having the SRY gene. So it isn't a non-issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imane_Khelif#2026

The page you link to doesn’t say that. “As of February 2026, Khelif had not described herself as intersex or as having a DSD.”

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Re: Olympic Committee bars transgender athletes from women’s events

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Post by simondotau » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

skyyler wrote: post #342

andsoitis wrote: post #314

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At 12 you simply do not have sufficient capacity to make a good decision on the matter.

Which is why puberty blockers are prescribed to transgender children, delaying puberty until later in life when a "good decision" can be made, usually closer to the mid to late teens.

But surely puberty, not just maturity, is necessary to fully understand the sexual experience and whether your feelings about yourself crystalise differently in the presence of sexual drive. Not to mention, the idea of delaying puberty seems like an invitation for unrelated and/or unforeseen downstream consequences on biological health.