I’ll wade in despite previously staying out. And indeed I am still staying out – I’m not getting into the transathlete debate again, and certainly not into the social TG debate, I’ve +1’ed Kelvin’s comment on the last page that sums up where I am there.
I’ll also state clearly IANAE on genetics and hence the below is from a position of relative technical ignorance. I also apologise for any clumsy phrasing, it isn’t meant.
I googled and it suggests DSD occurs in between 0.1 and 0.02% (1 in 1000-5000) of births. And an athlete with (some types of) DSD may have potential advantages in some types of sport, but it’s not an absolute – Imane Khelif for example wins 4/5 bouts which isn’t exceptional, and sport isn’t overrun with DSD athletes sweeping the board.
So what to ‘do’ with them? Should they be forced to take suppressing treatments to limit their advantage, whatever that is? Or be banned altogether.
My answer – no. Sporting success already is a mix between genetic advantage, talent, and hard work. To even be competitive at that level you have to have ‘superior’ genetics, whether internal (lung capacity, fast twitch fibres, whatever) or external – size, arm span, hand size, and so on. Bolt was dominant because of his height and an unnatural stride length, no-one suggests he should have been limited to make it ‘fairer’ for other athletes. Other sprinters couldn’t win WC or Olympic models because they were born at the same time as Bolt, which is just tough.
Imane Khelif did not choose her genetics. She’s a woman with a genetic abnormality that has worked **** hard to be good at her sport. Good for her, I wish her well in the rest of this competition.