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

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

#761

Post by AlecSchueler » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:33 AM UTC

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…

> There might be more “biological advantage” nuance with people just starting their transition,

There might also be a similar advantage for AFAB women who have unusually higher testosterone. I don't get why they don't just do hormone brackets like they do with weight in boxing, and do away with gender based divisions entirely.

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

#762

Post by Auracle » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:34 AM UTC

delecti wrote: post #377

Aurornis wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I had a brain injury when I was 12 that knocked my testosterone levels way down.

In my 20s this was discovered and I went on testosterone replacement. My hands are still the same size as my mom’s. My feet didn’t get back to the size they were before the accident. I didn’t regain the height I lost. God only knows what it did to my brain.

Maybe if you’re only on them a little bit you’d be fine, but the whole concept is bad. My wife fainted when she got her first period. Why? She didn’t want to be a woman. She was a tomboy. It turns out that the flood of sex hormones during puberty can actually make you feel like a woman/man, which should surprise no one. To block that from happening and potentially effectively treating the dysphoria is madness.

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

#763

Post by bonesss » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:35 AM UTC

tdb7893 wrote: post #21

Trans women have competed as women in the Olympics once ever and have 0 medals. By the numbers it's a non issue under previous rules (despite the incredible amount of ink spilled over it). People are talking about trans women here but the vast majority of people affected by this change are women who are not trans who have a "disorder of sexual development".

> By the numbers

The numbers tell the opposite story. Hierarchical and ranked sports enjoy displacement at every subsequent point from unfair entrants.

By the numbers, looking just at #1-3 spots of results list where tens of thousands of subsequent entries have been improperly displaced and claiming no impact is mathematically absurd. Contextually it ignorant of how competitive sports work at a scholastic or professional level, particularly for women. In 2026 based on the number, volume, and depth of rebuttals - at the international sporting level among others - that ignorance could readily be seen as willing.

LeBron James playing in your kids 16 and under basketball league, even if he promises to keep his team at or lower than 4th place, will be visible on the numbers and also peoples sentiments and desire to participate. Primates understand ‘fair’ viscerally (cucumber experiments).

The intersex argument based on the ratios you are presenting also breaks the other way. Those women, as female sports mature and expand (into combat sports especially), have been excluded from female competition for number of reasons. To your point, mostly this is about safety and then fairness, the trans angle is a minority even there with less scientific or sporting grounds for inclusion in competitive divisions.

[In olden days people who couldn’t make the team would participate and help with equipment, logistics, fundraising, training, or tutoring. These days you can run virtual competitions with GPS tracking, and there are a bunch of individual sports that are already tracked by large category spreadsheets, with plenty of room for more. I hope these bans help end the wasteful discussion and focus energies on collaboration and social inclusion.]

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

#764

Post by Jensson » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:37 AM UTC

space_fountain wrote: post #704

appreciatorBus wrote: post #693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a category called woman, it’s defined by something that’s identify related. But that’s not how it’s defined. People have been using that word in every language humans ever invented for thousands of years to mean biological female. If you want to argue that there is something else that isn’t biological sex and you want to invent a word for it, go nuts, but “woman” is already defined. Words can and do change…

I’m not defending this definition, but I will point out that gender has never been about the chromosomes you were born with. It has been about how people around you perceived you and people often have overly simplistic ideas about exactly what that meant. Plus it’s totally normal for words to have more technical detail than they first appeared. The idea of a sex binary doesn’t fully exist so we’d need something to de…

> It has been about how people around you perceived you and people often have overly simplistic ideas about exactly what that meant.

I don't know any culture which defined gender by how you dress and how long your hair is rather than what is between your legs. You would be called a girly boy or a boyish girl.

So girly and boyish is how you are perceived, girl and boy is your sex, that is how almost every culture defined it through all time.

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

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Post by Retric » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:39 AM UTC

crote wrote: post #741

remarkEon wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is an observation. What, do the parents and doctors flip a coin or throw darts before "assigning" a "gender"?

It is quite common for babies to come out of the womb with blonde hair, only for it to darken to brown later in life. The baby isn't blonde, it just looks blonde right now. Same with gender. Doctors observe a flavor of genitals, make a reasonable assumption, and legally assign the gender which seems appropriate.

Not just that, start talking hundreds of millions of births and you get clerical error.

Which could then become rather complicated if there are laws saying the sex assigned at birth has significant lifelong legal consequences.

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

#766

Post by badc0ffee » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

patagurbon wrote: post #758

badc0ffee wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 comp…

From what I've read, these women all had CAIS or similar, and testosterone had no effect on their bodies. Thankfully the new IOC guidelines have an exception for that and would let them compete with women.

But I want to point out that XY+CAIS individuals cannot conceive or carry a child. They have no ovaries and no uterus.

> Why should men be allowed to compete as genetic freaks but not women?

They are, if they are female or have CAIS. Caster Semenya, for example, does not meet that standard. Caster was assigned female at birth and raised as a girl, but is not biologically female, rather a male with a DSD (5-ARD) who has testes and fully male levels of testosterone and musculature.

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

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Post by LunicLynx » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:45 AM UTC

jpkw wrote: post #184

LunicLynx wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I take your house. And you complain, I just say: „some people take ownership far too seriously!“ For some people sports is their life and livelihood for that matter, this should be acknowledged.

I think a more fair and accurate comparison would be religion.

You are aware that this is about athletes and not spectators, right?

I agree when it comes to spectators, at least in some sports.

But people do make a living, especially in poor countries, by being successful in sports.

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

#768

Post by machomaster » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:46 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #692

wstrange wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we are talking about amateur sports where the stakes are low, the concept of slotting athletes into divisions makes sense. In elite sports, no one wants to see "best in division X". They want to see the best hockey players, the best golfer, the best skier, etc. The money incentives are considerable. This would destroy women's professional sports.

Implicit in what you're saying is that they want to see the best sex-identified athletes in a given sport. If that wasn't true, women's sports would have no audience and we know now (finally!) that this is not the case. I personally think that we'd live in a much better world where you compete against others who broadly speaking are in the same performance category as you. But I do appreciate that the transition to s…

WNBA is being sponsored by men's NBA and they would not have survived without.

The merr existence is not an evidence of success.

Kids' little leagues also exist, but can't be compared, with actual professional men's sports.

Where is women's American football? Women's baseball? Crickets...

Women's icehockey is in such a state, that there are only 2 decent countries dominating everybody, and they would get destroyed by men's amateur players.

There are only few women's sports disciplines that are actually popular on their own. Like figure skating and tennis. And the athletes would get annihilated by their male counterparts.

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

#769

Post by LunicLynx » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:48 AM UTC

crote wrote: post #750

LunicLynx wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is more about logic. For this article to be relevant a spot for the Olympics of either gender has been taken by a trans athlete. Which by conclusion means that a trans person outperformed the other gender. Taking part in the Olympics is a difficult endeavor, for which you must qualify first.

Look up Elizabeth Swaney, she got to the Olympics by not falling off her skis. And I mean that quite literally: Ignoring DNFs she was dead last in all the qualifying events, but by doing a massive amount of them she somehow managed to get enough points in total to qualify. Or there's Eric Moussambani, who participated in the 100 meter freestyle swimming without ever having seen an Olympic-sized swimming pool before.…

Exactly my point, your country is only sending you to the Olympics if you are their absolute best. The competitive part does not start at the Olympics. The Olympics are already the price.

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

#770

Post by machomaster » Fri, Mar 27, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

kelseyfrog wrote: post #554

fourseventy wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Men are stronger, faster, have more dense bones, have bigger lungs, bigger hands, etc, etc, etc. Men and women are different in hundreds of ways it's not just 'lean body mass'. Men are better at sports than women. Do you even live in reality? Have you ever completed in anything in your life?

Then create those divisions. Please be rational.

And then you get a situation with as many divisions as there are people and everyone get a gold medal, everyone is a winner. The true woke paradise.

Fortunately, most people don't like to live in this hell and are against clear attempts to destroy women's sports by the clueless and/or purposefully malicious activists.