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  • Essay / Should Transgender Athletes Participate in Olympic Sports

    President Biden signed an executive order on January 20, 2021, on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination Based on Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” This calls into question the question of whether or not transgender athletes should compete in sports against non-transgender athletes, but more specifically for the purposes of this essay, in the Olympics. Additionally, if this is not accepted, can it affect the emotional or mental state of transgender athletes? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayThe International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) was established on June 23, 1894 and is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement. The International Olympic Committee declares: “Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. By blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for fundamental universal ethical principles. Sport remains plagued by many of the same gender inequalities that we see more generally; issues such as pay inequality, gender-based violence, lack of targeted investment and negative stereotypes and social norms.” Physiological Benefits of Sports and Activities, an article written by Alicia Garcia-Falgueras, the author confirms the relationship between different types of training and how it can affect the emotions of any athlete. Falgueras states that: "The relationship between physical exercise and depression levels is correlational rather than parametric, indicating a possible preventive effect of depression." If a transgender athlete is not allowed to compete in the Olympics, it could potentially have an extremely negative impact on their mental state, not only due to their disqualification due to the way they identify (negative stereotypes and norms social), but it could also reduce his training which could also be correlated with depression. Chris Mosier was born as a woman in 1980. Mosier began competing in triathlons as a woman in 2005. In 2010, Mosier underwent sex reassignment surgery. He is best known for being known as the first known transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic Trials, in the sport of power walking, in the gender with which he identifies. The article, The Trailblazer (Katherine Kornei), discusses the athletic abilities of transgender athletes before and after their sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. Kornei says: “A study of transgender women found that their running times slowed after transitioning, but their age groups, which compare people to the best runners of the same gender and age, barely changed. changed, suggesting that they have no advantage over non-transgender women.” Although sex reassignment surgery changes male and female organs, does it also affect testosterone or hormone levels? Scientists have conducted research and studies on transgender and non-transgender athletes to see if their testosterone or hormone levels helped them compete. Ethical Issues Concerning Transgender Athletes, by Victoria Chen, discusses the levels of testosterone and other hormones in transgender and non-transgender athletes. Chen says: “The study found that women with higher natural testosterone levels had a competitive advantagein the 400m, 400m hurdles, running, hammer throw and pole vault, with margins of between 1 and 5%.” This means that ordinary women who have higher (natural) testosterone levels have an advantage in all athletic, strength and endurance sports. So what happens to transgender women and non-transgender women if their hormone levels are too high? According to the IOC, transgender athletes must be tested for an entire year before, but also during competition, and continuously to reflect below a determined total testosterone level. Essentially, transgender people who have undergone sex reassignment surgery must also undergo hormone therapy to achieve hormone levels equal to the natural gender they want to compete against. Other studies reveal, in some cases, naturally born females (and sometimes naturally born males). ) have a dysfunction with their chromosomes. Female chromosomes are characterized by XX, while male chromosomes are characterized by XY. However, it has been medically noted that some women are born with an XY chromosome but their birth appearance is female. In these cases, their hormones may be different from those of women born with standard XX chromosomes. In 1985, an athlete named Maria Jose Martinez-Patino was on track to compete at the Olympic level as a hurdler in track and field. At that time, athletes had to undergo genetic testing to prove their gender. Patino passed her first sex test and received a certificate of womanhood, but she forgot the certificate when she went to compete at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan. She underwent another test but, due to the results, was asked to fake an injury and not compete. She did not receive the results of her blood tests for two months. According to the article Essay: Suspect Sex (Alison Carlson), it was leaked to the press when Martinez-Patino was diagnosed with total androgen insensitivity. Because of the publicity, she was kicked out of the athletes' residence, rejected by the national team and her sporting dreams seemed almost over. In the article Personal Story, A Woman Tried and Tested by Maria Jose Martinez-Patino: “I was ashamed and embarrassed. I lost friends, my fiancé, hope and energy.” She further revealed that she had no doubt that she was a woman and did not receive any physical advantages based on her diagnosis. In 1988, she ended up fighting the IOC to be able to participate in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, ​​Spain. In the article The History and Current Policies of Gender Testing in Elite Athletes (Pino Diaz), it is stated that "women with congenital sex chromosome abnormalities do not possess an unfair advantage and should be allowed to compete as women.” Originally, scientists believed that women with these chromosomal dysfunctions had advantages comparable to men. However, "women born with aberrant chromosomes do not enjoy unfair physical advantages, similar to those of men, that XX women who pass the tests cannot have due to other forms of biological variation." Martinez-Patino won his case. Patino attempted to qualify during the trials for the 1992 Olympics, but after being away from training for so long to make her case, she missed qualifying by ten hundredths of a second. So, according to the historical presentation of Maria Jose Martinez-Patino and In women with chromosomal abnormalities, the IOC could go.