If it was a complete fabrication, it wouldn’t have made headlines across so many news outlets. “Lie” is a strong word.
None of them specifically bring up being transgender; but a previous boxing association banned her for having too much testosterone. I am curious if that means the testosterone was either natural (meaning we can’t effectively test gender for the sport, and competing by sex is pointless) or if it was a simple case of doping, injecting it manually. Neither feels like a fun conclusion.
EDIT: I’ll walk myself back on this a bit. Someone else pointed out to me that this other boxing association is Russian-owned. Given their track record for unsportsmanlike exclusion, I think that lends suspicion to their “testosterone test”.
It is true that the average male human has some physical advantages on the average female human.
Otoh the variability amongst people of the same sex is wider than that average difference. This effect is reinforced in professional sports because it tends to attract outliers.
And then for trans athletes, most of that difference gets smoothed by a well adjusted HRT applied fpr a few years.
If it was a complete fabrication, it wouldn’t have made headlines across so many news outlets. “Lie” is a strong word.
None of them specifically bring up being transgender; but a previous boxing association banned her for having too much testosterone. I am curious if that means the testosterone was either natural (meaning we can’t effectively test gender for the sport, and competing by sex is pointless) or if it was a simple case of doping, injecting it manually. Neither feels like a fun conclusion.
EDIT: I’ll walk myself back on this a bit. Someone else pointed out to me that this other boxing association is Russian-owned. Given their track record for unsportsmanlike exclusion, I think that lends suspicion to their “testosterone test”.
Competing by sex is pretty pointless.
It is true that the average male human has some physical advantages on the average female human.
Otoh the variability amongst people of the same sex is wider than that average difference. This effect is reinforced in professional sports because it tends to attract outliers.
And then for trans athletes, most of that difference gets smoothed by a well adjusted HRT applied fpr a few years.