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I don’t know how all this will play out, and I don’t know if she’ll be able to continue racing in the women’s division. Is she fast enough to race in the men’s division, I wonder? ”

TIME magazine published a story on this, and they said that no, she would not have qualified for the men’s division races, even the qualifying matches. Her times would not have put her there.

Personally, if she has lived her whole life as a woman, who are we to say she doesn’t qualify? Excellent points in this article, really, everything I have been thinking and feeling about how this outstanding, high-achieving woman has been humiliated makes me want to vomit. As Bill Maher says, I know conservatives go crazy when you say racism is involved, but to me, this has latent racist ideology attached to it. A large percentage of the world population is hermaphroditic, do you think the twentieth and twenty-first centuries never saw a hermaphrodite competing in the Olympics or other high-stakes athletic engagements? This girl just got called out, and it’s totally not fair.

She should keep her medal, and she should be given a public apology.

Seriously, the things we do to women.

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” How AIS Occurs

Every foetus, whether genetically male (XY) or female (XX), starts life with the capacity to develop either a male or female reproductive system. All foetuses have non-specific genitals for the first 8 weeks or so after conception. After a few weeks, in an XY foetus (without AIS), the non-specific genitals develop into male genitals under the influence of male hormones (androgens).

In AIS, the child is conceived with male (XY) sex chromosomes. Embryonic testes develop inside the body and start to produce androgens. In AIS, these androgens cannot complete the male genital development due to a rare inability to use the androgens that the testes produce so the development of the external genitals continues along female lines. However, another hormone produced by the foetal testes suppresses the development of female internal organs. Thus a person with AIS has external genitals that in Complete AIS (CAIS) are completely female or in Partial AIS (PAIS) are partially female. Internally, however, there are testes instead of a uterus and ovaries.

So in a genetically male (XY) foetus the active intervention of male hormones (androgens) is needed to produce a fully male system. A female body type with female external genitalia is the basic underlying human form.

In about two thirds of all cases, AIS is inherited from the mother. In the other third there is a spontaneous mutation in the egg. The mother of the foetus, who does not have AIS, but has the genetic error for AIS on one of her X chromosomes, is called a carrier. ”

http://www.medhelp.org/www/ais/21_OVERVIEW.HTM#How

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So, to the person who leaked this: I hope you die painfully, publicly and rot in hell for this.

Caster trained for this, won a medal, and this is how her teammates and her coach repay her? Jesus H. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
To Ms. Caster I say: I am SO sorry this is happening to you and your family; I wish you all only the best.

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hopefully they will not disqualify her. People are born with all sorts of physical advantages or disadvantages… some are bigger, some are smaller, some have longer legs and are better runners, some have shorter legs etc etc… she was just born with a natural source of testosterone that makes her a better competitor. it’s not like she’s taking anything illegal to be better….

it’s only unfair if it came from a bottle… what is she supposed to do? come up with a new standard for competition? would they disqualify her if she had extraordinarily long legs?

I wish her well.

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This is a thorny thicket and its going to force some deep discussion and the need to develop rules for these sorts of situations.

All I know is that I have acquaintances who have spent their lifetime training and preparing to compete athletically at a national and international level. They have followed all the rules and entered into the competition with the understanding that they are starting at an equal level. I suspect that many of Caster’s competitors are feeling somewhat duped or that they’ve wasted a lifetime training for something they might never win because someone else has what they consider to be an “unfair” advantage?

I have no answers for any of this, just trying to consider both sides of the issue. I feel badly for Caster and her family that they have been denied a proper grace period during which they could have sought out advice and counseling. I also feel badly for the other athletes who are being pushed by coaches and others to react with their emotions versus their hearts. Again, this is a thorny thicket.

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