What I read
“Testosterone rules for female athletes 'unscientific'” reports scientists’ opinion on the IAFF’s rule about female athletes with high testosterone amount. South African runner, Caster Semenya was banned from the competition for nearly a year since she has higher testosterone amount than the limit for female athletes, and the rule states that this kind of female athlete must have hormone treatment. Scientists disagree with this rule and comment that the amount of testosterone produced by one’s body does not have that much effect on one’s performances in sports. The scientists from the universities explain that testosterone is not the only indicator for an athlete’s physical function and this rule is too personal for high-ranked athletes, so it should be reconsidered.
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My response
This article interests me since it is about science and sport. I have heard the news about this South African runner before and I am not quite agree with this rule. Although testosterone is a male hormone, it can be found in both men and women in different amount. Men tend to have more testosterone than women whereas women tend to have more progesterone and estrogen than men. However, the gender of a person doesn't mainly based on the amount of sex hormones, it is based on whether that person has XX or XY chromosomes. Research shows that not every man in this world has the equal amount of testosterone, some men have more testosterone than usual whereas some men have less testosterone than usual. Some women don't have normal hormone amount too, it is not their fault, it's just some disfunctions of the organs in their bodies. Banning these kinds of athlete or taking them into hormone treatment is not fair, they have the right to compete fairly.
A lot of factors are involved in an athlete's performance. It is not fair if the IAFF focus only on the amount of hormone inside the first place runner. If IAFF puts it this way, they should also ban a runner with higher height than average since they will be able to move faster per footstep. There are also a lot more factors which impact an athlete's body. I totally agree with the scientists' comments from the news source, this IAFF's is too personal and not scientific.
A lot of factors are involved in an athlete's performance. It is not fair if the IAFF focus only on the amount of hormone inside the first place runner. If IAFF puts it this way, they should also ban a runner with higher height than average since they will be able to move faster per footstep. There are also a lot more factors which impact an athlete's body. I totally agree with the scientists' comments from the news source, this IAFF's is too personal and not scientific.
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My question
Do you agree with the rule which ban a female athlete with higher-than-average testosterone amount in her body from the competition?
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Reference
- Testosterone rules for female athletes 'unscientific'. (2019, March 21). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47640359
As soon as I read Keng's opening sentence in his response, I was wondering why the "article interests [him] since it is about science and sport." How long and why is he interested in sport were questions that came to my mind, and perhaps to other readers'.
ReplyDeleteBut I thought he also raises interesting questions. In fact, it occurred to me that the questions he thinks about are important for our concepts of justice about what people deserve. We tend to think that if people do well, then they deserve the rewards that they get from hard work, or skill, or whatever, but as the testosterone controversy shows, our skills, talents, and even psychology are determined by things that are accidental, or over which we have no control: brilliant, hardworking people are made that way by the genes they got from their parents, so why would they deserve to be rich or successful when others are not because they did not get such a great set of genes or a nurturing environment from their parents? Is the outcome really fair?