The women's 800 meter race featured local track star Melissa Bishop leading most of the way to a winning time just a shade over 2 minutes. The time was half a second better than my best time on the same track (different surface) a generation earlier. Of course I was running into a 20 mile per hour headwind wearing cement boots - or at least it felt like it. Okay, maybe her running form was more efficient and economical than my technique in my prime. She looked smooth and fast!
| Melissa Bishop taking the lead in an international race. |
Melissa Bishop is a silver medalist from the 2015 World Championships. She finished 4th at the Olympics in Rio last year. Melissa is caught right in the middle of an international
track and field conundrum through no fault of her own. A gender issue that has surfaced numerous times in international sports has once again reared its head and become news.
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| Caster Samenya after winning 209 World Championships in Berlin. |
Since 2009, the world sporting bodies such as the International Association of Athletics Federation (I.A.A.F) and the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C) allowed such athletes to compete only if they took female hormones. In 2015 the Center for Arbitration in Sport (C.A.S) ruled that to be a violation of the athlete's rights. Semenya won silver medals in the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics while taking female hormones. She won the Rio Olympics last year while off of the female hormones. The rule to force female athletes with hyperandrogenism to take female hormones is under discussion for reinstatement. This controversy will continue.
Interestingly, the gold medal winner in the 2011 and 2012 races-a Russian woman- has since failed numerous drug tests for steroid enhancement. The world governing bodies were quick to act on Semenya after her 2009 win for natural but high testosterone levels but seemingly turned a blind eye for decades to unethical testosterone enhancement by eastern bloc countries and their political descendants. Sport is not always fair! However, Caster Semenya may yet wind up with 2 more gold medals retroactively.
There are many considerations that are aligned with this issue:
- Caster Semenya did not intentionally try to get an unfair advantage unlike her Russian competitor who was outright cheating.
- Some may argue that all great athletes have some genetic advantage over the norm. Gretzky had magical perception and coordination. Phelps seems to have flippers for feet. Basketball players are twice my height. Usain Bolt has no evident slow twitch muscle fibers. Soccer players have more natural acting ability than Meryl Streep when trying to draw a penalty. Baseball players can wash chewing tobacco down with gutrot whiskey and not gag! Us mere mortals are humbled by such genetic physical genius.
- We are in an era when some people want to be addressed as Meh rather than as Mister, Ms., or Mrs. Sport will not be immune from such issues in the future.
- Some view this as another attempt by men in power of trying to define what women should look like.
- Some men who have transgendered to become women will want to compete against them. Wasn't there a male who became a woman named Renee Richards and tried for the women's professional tennis tour some time back?
- Should former Olympic Decathlon champ Bruce Jenner, now Kaitlyn Jenner, come back and try and capture the women's Heptathlon crown, I am confident that Canadian Brienne Thiessen Eaton would kick his/her butt. Hey - they're both retired from track and field so it's a valid analogy and a moot point!
- Were I to pull a Kaitlyn Jenner and try to dominate women's wrestling Canadian Olympic Champion Erika Wiebbe would absolutely demolish me! (Ouch!)
- More men becoming transgender women will want to compete against women. What will happen then?
- The International Olympic Committee used to perform sex tests on suspect athletes back in the 1960's. It is a historic and unpleasant topic in which the discussion is once again relevant!
| Russian runner Mariya Savinova beats Semenya at 2012 London Olympics. Unnaturally juiced- with-testosterone runner beats runner with naturally high testosterone levels. One took substances for an unfair edge! The other has a genetic advantage through no fault of her own! |
Meanwhile I will continue to be a track and field fan. I will still appreciate the running talent of a Melissa Bishop no matter how many medals she may or may not have. Running will always be poetry in motion to my sports starved eyes.
On a more personal note, whenever I go to the Terry Fox Athletic Complex for track and field events in Ottawa, I feel old and slow. I sometimes feel like my track career peaked in high school and maybe it did. However, no worries, my career as a sports/fitness blogger has yet to reach its zenith. Keep on reading fans!
Until Next Time
Keep Fit!
Little Bobby Strong
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Kaitlyn would kick your cis butt! I must be the only person that reads this.
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