Look, Ma! I’m straddling a fence on a slippery slope!
Posted by Ethan Barron on Friday, January 22nd, 2010
I won’t lie, I’m not 100% ready to weigh in on the Castor Semenya issue yet. There’s a lot going on here and I will admit that I don’t have all the relevant information. If you want some of the latest updates, you can read this article at NYtimes.com. To be honest, it actually scares me more than anything else. And by that I mean it scares me anytime politics and genetics or politics and the human body get put in the same room. The fight always gets ugly when that happens.
At first glance, I don’t feel that this is an issue of fairness. If someone is born with a genetic disorder/advantage then that’s just athletics. (I really dislike the use of the word defect or disorder in this situation too) In a lot of ways, Shaq has a disorder…he’s freakishly tall and weighs about 330 lbs. And yes, it would be unfair if I played a game of 1-on-1 with Shaq. But that doesn’t mean that he should be penalized because of that. And that’s really what we’re talking about here…people that Castor is beating are upset about that.
In my eyes, sport is simple. It’s about taking your innate gifts and making the most of them. If someone’s better than you because they were born with an advantage…tough noogies. But if someone artificially boosts the gifts they were born with, then that’s a different story.
It looks like Semenya may have been born with a physiology that gave her an elevated testosterone level. If so, right now, I’m pretty sure that I don’t have a problem with that. Floyd Landis having 12x his innate testosterone levels in the Tour de France - problem. Tayshaun Prince (6′ 9″) having a 7′ 2″ wing span and being a great defender - not a problem. Ethan Hawke surgically making himself 2″ taller in Gattaca - problem. Babe Ruth having some extra weight to hit home runs because of all the beer and hot dogs (and horrible pitching) - not a problem. Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds becoming pharmaceutical petri dishes to break records - problem.
Off the top of my head, a couple of my concerns with all this are:
#1 - The athlete’s health - Too many athletes, coaches, agents, etc put health on the shelf for the betterment of performance. Is your lineman at risk for diabetes? How many concussions does your safety have? How hard is Shaq’s heart beating to circulate his blood? Will that creatine give you pancreatic cancer? What is Castor’s testosterone doing to her body long term? Stuff like that.
#2 - Who actually wants a level playing field? - If we medically or pharmaceutically level the playing field then aren’t we just destroying the powerhouse/underdog aspect of sport. David v. Goliath epitomizes sport. David isn’t too impressive if someone made Goliath take some pills to make him the same size as David.
I’m actually pretty interested to hear what you all think. We had a great back and forth about race, genetics, and sport last year. Maybe we should get one going about gender, genetics, and sport. Any thoughts out there? If you’d like to respond with more than a ‘comment’ then feel free to email me a post.
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Maggieon 26 Jan 2010 at 3:58 pm 1This article got me all fired up, and not just because a Duke Law professor makes one of the most inflammatory statements in there. I think you provide a good discussion of the underlying issue, and I can understand both sides of the controversy: it would be hard to lose to a woman who has higher testosterone levels, and it would also be hard to keep such a woman from competing. I don’t think there is a right answer to the question of whether Semenya can compete fairly. But what I found really disturbing about the article was the IOC medical panel’s suggestion that athletes can compete if they agree to be treated, and if they do not agree to treatment they might be barred from competition on a “case-by-case” basis. Most track athletes I know would do almost anything to run (who here hasn’t run on an injury?), so while treatment may be technically voluntary, I doubt many olympic hopefuls will want to submit their dreams to some panel’s “case by case” discretion. If that means that athletes found to have medical conditions that cause hormone imbalances are effectively required to get medical treatment, that creates a situation that I see as a completely offensive violation of privacy. Medical treatment of a hormone imbalance isn’t some easy fix, it is changing the chemistry of a finely tuned human body that is used to being the way it is. In a sport where success depends on the tiniest margins possible, the athlete is trapped between being expelled from competition and undergoing a treatment with effects that will likely render expulsion unnecessary. That’s the point, isn’t it? To “even the playing field” by making individuals with these conditions slower. I understand concern for the health effects of these disorders, but treatment decisions should be made by the athlete, not by some high panel of medical experts. I don’t think it’s right for the IOC to impose this policy as if it’s a race of horses, not humans.
Timon 28 Jan 2010 at 9:42 am 2I don’t think it’s fair to compare the case of Semenya to other athletes, like Shaq or Tayshaun who have genetic differences that enable to them to perform exceptionally well in their sport. The NBA isn’t divided into two separate divisions: one for the tall and the short. Track, however, is: male and female.
If the issue were that her pituitary gland overproduced GH and made her exceptionally tall, people wouldn’t suggest that something had to be done to level the playing field before she could play in the WNBA. Other competitors would accept that she was born in a way that gave her an advantage over the other women.
The question, however, isn’t whether Semenya has a genetic advantage over other females; it’s whether she actually belongs in the female category at all. It’s certainly unfortunate that she has to be subject to all of the testing and a sports governing body then has to declare whether or not she’s female, but I don’t see any way around it. If she is ruled to be a hermaphrodite, how can she be allowed to compete in a division for people who are purely biologically female?