UCI Changes Requirements For Gender Classification In Cycling

 

                                unucycling.com

Female cycling world champion Jolanda Neff

  The Union Cycliste International has decided that their previous standard for determining the gender of cycling contestants wasn't sufficient. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

 

"On Thursday, cycling’s governing body updated its eligibility rules for transgender athletes with stricter limits that will force riders to wait longer before they can compete.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) increased the transition period on low testosterone to two years, and lowered the maximum accepted level of testosterone. The previous transition period was 12 months but the UCI said recent scientific studies show that “the awaited adaptations in muscle mass and muscle strength/power” among athletes who have made a transition from male to female takes at least two years."

The level of testosterone of a male attempting to compete as a female in a UCI event can't exceed 5 nanomoles/liter. The testosterone content in a normal male varies between 8.64 and 29 nanomoles/liter, depending on age and time of day. The testosterone level of an individual can't be determined by appearance or any of the human senses. It is only through a sophisticated serum blood test and laboratory analysis that the testosterone levels of a person can be known, maybe. Tests of this kind are notoriously unreliable. Should the results of such a test indicate a serious health problem the test is repeated or a different methodology is employed. 

Of course, the permitted levels of testosterone for competition as a female are arbitrary, they don't give any real indication of the "masculinity" or "femininity" of the tested individual. 

What we're talking about here is "scientism", a use of the techniques of science, microscopic measurement of invisible molecules and interpretations unavailable to the general population, to address social questions that have no apparent relationship to the substance being measured.

It might be interesting to contemplate other ways such information could be used. Isn't it possible that government agencies or insurance companies or human resources departments could use the information, not only about testosterone levels but about other endocrines and proteins in the body, to make decisions affecting the future of the tested? This very process smacks of an extension of the ideas of eugenics, which survives despite its universal condemnation. 

Since an incredible few are the focus of this problem, it seems that humanity in its current form has such a scarcity of real concerns that it must devote some of its attention to confused athletes in minor sports.