Laurel Hubbard’s transrode weightlifter. (Author: TASR / AP)
Critics point out that the rules do not take into account the natural advantage of transgender athletes who have undergone physical development as men, especially at puberty. As a result, women outperform in strength, speed and endurance. Insufficient setting of rules is also confirmed by experts.
“Today we already know that the average athlete is 30 to 40 percent stronger than an athlete, and 10 to 20 percent faster. At that time, the boundaries were determined only purely mathematically, “points out Dostal.
“Now we know that lowering testosterone levels leads to some immediate changes. But you won’t change anything. Hemoglobin levels will change in a few weeks, but it only has a quarter of the 30 or 40 percent effect on strength. Therefore, the limit should no longer apply today, but there is still no other rule, “he added.
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Is it unfair?
Hubbard has been calling for several years controversial reactions . When he won gold at the Pacific Games in Samoa, the head of the weightlifting association there said it was like allowing athletes to dope.
Before the Commonwealth Games, the Australian Federation sought to eliminate it. Its representatives even wanted to sue Hubbard, they are still writing a petition before the Olympic Games.
“Hubbard has a physiological and thus a mental advantage over her opponents. He can’t compete with them on the same level, “said Michael Keelan, the head of Australian weightlifters at the time.
“Weightlifting is a power sport and the predisposition to building muscle plays an important role in it. If you have the right hormones in your body, you are lifting more pounds. ”
Hubbard’s opponents from the Olympics also feel unfair. And again, they wrote petitions, but without success.
“Transgender people have my full support, but anyone who practices weightlifting knows that this situation is unfair to other athletes and to sport as a whole. I understand that this is not easy for officials. But this looks like a bad joke, ” she said representative of Belgium from the most difficult category Anna van Bellinghen.
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Laurel Hubbard injured in 2018 at the Commonwealth Games. (Author: SITA / AP)
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Even according to the doctor, transgender athletes have a clear advantage over their colleagues. Hubbard trained for physiological aspects of the male body until she was 35 years old.
“Major changes took place a long time ago, at puberty. A man who grew up as a man remains in the vast majority of his physiological and sports-physical parameters as a man for life. There is a clear advantage that others cannot have, “said Dostal.
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Medals have been taken in the past
According to the sports doctor, the topic of inclusion of transgender people is evolution rather than revolution.
“The first cases were in the late 1990s, then the topic subsided and the last two or three years have been resolved,” he says.
However, similar cases have occurred in the past. In Czechoslovakia, the example of Zdena Koubková is known, who in the 1930s was the multiple holder of the world record in the 80 and 800 meters. As a 23-year-old, she was operated on for a man; a few years later, her success was annulled and the results were canceled.
The story of Zdeněk Koubek is also told by Lída Merlínová’s novel from 1935 Zdenin’s world record . The film is also well known Erik a Erika from 2018, which describes a true story from the 1960s about the successful skier Erika Schinegger, whose hormonal and doping control at the Olympics proved to be genetically male.
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South African athlete Caster Semenya (Author: TASR / AP)
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In recent years, the case of South African athlete Caster Semenya, who won medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, is known. She could not start at the World Championships because she refused to undergo a reduction in blood testosterone levels.
“It’s a hyperandrogenism syndrome. It is a disorder of metabolism at the level of testosterone receptors, testosterone production, or tumors or abnormalities in the hormonal system, “explains doctor Dostal.
“Unlike transgender people, a man is born with a male karyotype, but as a girl, he looks and perceives himself as a woman. At puberty, instead of menses, he begins to have androgenic features. But there is no gender reassignment. “
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The topic must be discussed
It will probably not be possible to set the rules fairly. “It’s a multifactorial question; partly cultural, partly social, highly ethical, certainly medical and sports political. The question is whether we are more in favor of justice or inclusion. Whether there is more the right of one athlete, or the rights of the others, or how much the rights are trampled between them, “continues Dostal.
He acknowledges that the protection of the female category and the inclusion of transgender people only among men are also being discussed in international fora. In that case, however, they would be disadvantaged.
“If someone wins a medal, it means that someone else will not win it. And those affected athletes are not three, but everyone else, “he says for DVTV He got. “There should be a professional, non-emotional discussion on how we define each sport category.”
After all, Hubbard may not be the only transgender athlete in Tokyo.
The substitute in the BMX cycling team is Chelsea Wolf, the American long-distance runner Megan Youngren can still qualify, and Tifanny Abreu is a wider selection of the Brazilian volleyball team.
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