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

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

#751

Post by crote » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 6:59 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #176

atmavatar wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that someone who's transitioned is no longer a man. After undergoing surgery and hormone treatment for a long period of time, a trans athlete falls somewhere between men and women in terms of capability. They'd have no more success competing against men than naturally born women would, yet they still have advantages when competing against naturally born women. Unfortunately, while the most equitable so…

You still have your larger bone structure. Larger musculature structure and different muscle insertions. different ligament structure. different skin structure. different grip strength. Broader shoulders, narrower pelvis, different angled limbs. all of that isn't going away even if it atrophies. And you aren't going to let it atrophy because you are an athlete in training managing your dietary macros. Maybe recovery…

> You still have your larger bone structure.

Starting out with this: are you proposing a height limit on female athletes? If having a larger bone structure is an unfair advantage, surely tall women should be banned from competing?

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

#752

Post by RealityVoid » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:03 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #672

RealityVoid wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the Khelif debacle incredibly damning for anti-trans militants since she apparently was born as a woman and has this weird thing where she has male characteristics. The anti-trans hysteria at that point in time was super off-putting for me since she did nothing wrong but merely existed. Before this I was like... meh, have sex separated sports and be done with it, but this made me re-evaluate my views in sex in…

Anti-transgender stance in sports doesn't mean anyone is doing something wrong, it's just that it's considered unfair to female women, and this includes various other conditions such as Khelif's. As far as your other argument it seems to suggest doing away with the whole women's sports as separate.

> Anti-transgender stance in sports doesn't mean anyone is doing something wrong, it's just that it's considered unfair to female women, and this includes various other conditions such as Khelif's.

Right, but that's not what's going on here, it's used as a platform for bigotry under the pretense of protecting women. It's not only... we need clear ground rules for this thing in order to have a level playing field, it's "Look what the trans are doing! Oh, the decadence in humanity!"

I'm not saying about doing away with woman's sports, sure, do the separation n xy chromozomes if we converge on this. I'm saying that it seems that the arguments of anit-trans activists are inconsistent and, for me, personally, a dude that doesn't really care about these things, off putting.

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

#753

Post by crote » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:07 AM UTC

boringg wrote: post #183

altruios wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bad comparison - here is one better, not a perfect one... You can't enter a car into a boating competition. The question here is: if you take basic precautions to make it the same class of boat - a modified car turned into a boat should be a valid entry - provided the engine speed roughly matches. People worry about cars on water here, not knowing that doesn't exist by definition: any car in water has been modified f…

I see your argument and has some merit but isn't persuasive enough. I would posit that its a bit too loose and that it breaks down on biological people have many more complicated systems that aren't simply re-categorized similar to your car and boat comparison. For better or worse nor is our medical science sophisticated enough to swap out the systems to be true comparables (and I don't mean to offend anyone).

> For better or worse nor is our medical science sophisticated enough to swap out the systems to be true comparables

The problem is that it isn't a hard binary. All the relevant metrics are going to fall on a spectrum, and there is a significant overlap between the male and female spectra.

The real question is: do you consider it fair if a top 1% male spectrum transitions to a top 1% female spectrum, or it only fair if that top 1% male spectrum ends up at the 50% percentile on the female spectrum?

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

#754

Post by crote » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:09 AM UTC

cmiles8 wrote: post #214

breakyerself wrote: post #194

I can't imagine trans women who avoided male puberty are statistically any better athletes than cis women. A total ban seems discriminatory to me.

You’re getting into a separate issue of blocking puberty in children, which may would consider abuse. Separate from that there are still measurable differences between sexes that you can’t just magically change with a pill or surgery.

> Separate from that there are still measurable differences between sexes

Ever seen pre-puberty kids play against each other? The girls and boys perform about the same.

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

#755

Post by patagurbon » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:12 AM UTC

qu4z-2 wrote: post #530

ck2 wrote: post #68

The easiest way to explain this nonsense is that in 100+ years of Olympics, there are ZERO elite athletes who were transgender none it's brought to you by the some of the very same people who want you to prove you are a citizen every time you vote because there have been no previous cases of that either However there are women who have given birth who will fail that SRY test Because biology is messy, not black and wh…

> it's brought to you by the some of the very same people who want you to prove you are a citizen every time you vote I'm staying out of the other issue as best I can, but as a non-American the resistance to this is just baffling, especially given the fact your recent elections have not exactly been widely trusted internally. Not that I'm saying there was much merit to the distrust, but it still makes sense to take s…

There is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud in the US.

There is a political talking point that “aliens are voting” in our elections but it has been proven false again and again. The purpose of this is to put up barriers for legitimate citizens to vote, not to truly fix an imaginary problem.

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

#756

Post by crote » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

zahlman wrote: post #522

lynndotpy wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be true if the Olympics were exclusively classifying the 23rd chromosomes, and nothing but. Leave aside the fact that very few of us here have actually tested our 23rd chromosome. Historically, the Olympics have not been (and are not) strictly chromosomal. The 2023 testosterone suppression decision requirements has exclusively impacted cis women, for one example. Humans are biologically dimorphic in the sa…

> Leave aside the fact that very few of us here have actually tested our 23rd chromosome. When people do submit to such testing, how commonly are the results other than they expected?

More often than you'd think! You can easily go your entire life without knowing. It is not uncommon for the first hint to be that a couple is having trouble conceiving.

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

#757

Post by Retric » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC

blindriver wrote: post #582

Retric wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a logical flaw in suggesting that something that occurs with a small percentage of a population such as “detransitioning” implies anything about every member of a population. Child abuse exists, but doesn’t imply anything about every parent.

> There is a logical flaw in suggesting that something that occurs with a small percentage of a population such as “detransitioning” implies anything about every member of a population. > Child abuse exists, but doesn’t imply anything about every parent. This is funny because that's the exact argument that transphobic opponents say about trans people themselves and the argument as to why gender fluidity or gender out…

I think you fundamentally fail to understand what I just said. Proper unbiased random sampling allows you to create sub populations that tend to reflect the characteristics of a larger group, biased populations don’t share that relationship.

“Because some animals hibernate, all animals hibernate” is just as flawed as saying “Because only a small percentage of hibernate, no animals hibernate.” Instead the relationship is “Because some animals exist that hibernate, there exist animals that hibernate.”

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

#758

Post by patagurbon » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:23 AM UTC

badc0ffee wrote: post #588

gpm wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is news to me - which males are you talking about here? This poor bloke who found out he was infertile during a premarital medical exam, for instance: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7760426/ > It's really not, though. They found a marker they can test for, and have clearly defined exceptions. Have you heard of the politician's fallacy, "something needs to be done, this is something, so this needs to…

> This poor bloke who found out he was infertile during a premarital medical exam, for instance: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7760426/ Interesting. Perhaps a better test is needed. > You're also assuming that we even need a test... evidence (no transfemale olympians ever coming not dead last) suggests we don't. This isn't just about trans women, but also about DSD cases like Imane Khelif and Caster Semeny…

SRY testing was done at the 1996 games and for a while before that. 8 cisgender women tested positive at that games. Far more than the number of transgender athletes who have ever participated. This resulted in genetic testing being changed from all women to on-suspicion.

The bottom line is these tests will catch dozens of people who are phenotypically women, who can even give birth. Why should men be allowed to compete as genetic freaks but not women?

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

#759

Post by messe » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:24 AM UTC

aucisson_masque wrote: post #578

callistocodes wrote: post #334

My two cents as a transfem athlete: The attention this topic receives is disproportionate considering how rare we are, especially close to the Olympics level. Most of us do sports for fun/friends and don’t care how they rank us, but would be sad to be banned. There might be more “biological advantage” nuance with people just starting their transition, but by this many years in it feels silly. I registered as a man fo…

No one cares at amateur levels but we are speaking of the Olympic. I'm all for transgender to do sport, have fun and even compete but Olympic games are about who is the best of the world. If you chose to identify as another sex, you can accept to give up on competing at the highest of the highest level. It's not like a big sacrifice.

> No one cares at amateur level

Except people clearly fucking do for some reason, and all that's going to happen is make life worse for women both cis and trans. Trans women will get excluded, and cis women who are "too good" or not fitting societal ideals of femininity will be accused of being trans. This is already happening to children.

> If you chose to identify as another sex

When did you choose to identify as the gender you were born with?

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

#760

Post by crote » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:26 AM UTC

EA-3167 wrote: post #565

lynndotpy wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how your question follows from the rest of the discussion, or in what specific ways you are suggesting people argue to be equivalent. Both K-12 sports and Olympic sports are understood to be sports. To restate myself, sports during childhood are much more important than elite world championships. Almost everyone I know did a sport with peers during our formative years, myself included. Meanwhile, nobody I…

Well then good news, this article and the discussion are only talking about the Olympics, not childhood sports.

The problem is that decisions at the olympic level tend to trickle down to lower competitions. There are plenty of sports where the gap between "college kid having fun" and "Olympics" isn't very wide.