I think you're a bit uneducated man. DO some research before you speak. Kate has hormone levels equal to an average woman, that's how it's fair for her to compete in the class. Her body and everything has a level playing field. interactives.stuff.co.nz/2018/03/a-level-playing-field
@parisgore: I'm sorry Paris, but you must realise how absurd that is? As far as I am aware Kate is the only transgender girl competing in downhill mountain bike competitions. The probability that one of the three best women in the world being that one transgender person are miniscule.
Obviously that doesn't make it impossible but it's so unlikely that it's probably not going to be repeated in another sport, right? After all transgender people make up what, 0.5% of the population?
These examples are all in the last year. I have no doubt we are going to see more and more of this as the next few years go on. For such a tiny minority they sure do seem to excel at sports considering they are on a completely level playing field, eh Paris?
It's fair for Kate to compete as she's playing within the current rules. I think she should take the higher road and decide on her own not to compete, but it's the rules that need to be changed. And if you truly believe that there's some magic way to make someone go from being a male to being on a fair level with females you are the one that needs to do some research. At best this will be like Dash in the Incredibles movie trying to race against other kids with his parents saying not too fast and then telling him not that slow. At what point do we decide we've chemically limited the performance of a transgender athlete enough? I think from the track record so far in various sports it's obvious that male to female transgender athletes have a performance advantage. Kate was previously an average male downhill racer and then now is a top level women's racer. Are you telling me if a top 10 male downhill racer transitioned, by the current rules, that they wouldn't absolutely dominate Womens downhill racing? So what do we do? Chemically limit the performance of male to female transgender athletes even more? How do we accurately determine when we've handicapped someone's performance enough? This doesn't even deal with the potential helth effects of trying to make a human being artificially stay within some parameters made up by a sports organisation. Males, evendors while still in the womb, have measurable physical differences that cannot be undone in any predictable way. Muscle mass, bone structure, visual acuity, etc... there is no way to ever in some accurately measurable way transition a male to female and be able to say there isn't an advantage.