On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” This calls into question whether or not transgender athletes should compete in sports against non-transgender athletes in sports, but more specifically for the purposes of this essay, in the Olympics. Also, can this affect the emotional or mental state of transgender athletes if not accepted? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) was created on June 23, 1894 and is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement. The International Olympic Committee states: “Olympism is a philosophy of life, which enhances and combines in a balanced whole the qualities of the body, will and mind. By combining sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a lifestyle based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles." In the article Empowering Women Through Sport “The world of sport continues to be 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 this can affect the emotions of any athlete. Falgueras states that: “The relationships between exercise and depression levels are correlational rather than parametric, indicating a possible preventive effect of depression.” If a transgender athlete were not allowed to compete in the Olympics, this could potentially have an extremely negative impact on their mental state due to not only disqualification due to how they identify (negative stereotypes and social norms), but could also decrease his workout which could also be related to depression. Chris Mosier was born as a woman in 1980. Mosier began competing in triathlons as a woman in 2005. In 2010, Mosier underwent gender reassignment surgery. He is most famous for being known as the first known transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic trials, in the sport of walking, in the gender with which they identify. The article, The Trailblazer (Katherine Kornei), discusses the athletic abilities of transgender athletes before and after sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. Kornei says, "A study of transgender women found that their race times slowed after transitioning, but their age grades, which compare people to top runners of the same sex and age, didn't change much, 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 conducted research and studies on transgender athletes and non-transgender athletes to see if their testosterone or hormone levels helped them drive their competition. Ethical Issues Concerning Transgender Athletes, by Victoria Chen, discusses the testosterone and other hormone levels of transgender and non-transgender athletes. Chen says: “The study found that women with a higher natural testosterone level had a competitive advantage in the 400 meter dash, 400 meter hurdles,800 meter run, hammer throw and pole vault, with margins of between 1 and 5%”. This means that normal women who have higher (natural) testosterone levels have an advantage in any athletic, muscular and endurance sport. 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 a full year before, including during competition, and continuously reflect below a certain level of total testosterone. Essentially, transgender people who have undergone sex reassignment surgery must also undergo hormone therapy treatment to achieve hormone levels equal to the natural gender they want to compete with. Further studies reveal, in some cases, natural-born females (and sometimes natural-born males). ) have a malfunction with their chromosomes. Female chromosomes are characterized as XX, while male chromosomes are characterized as XY. However, it has been noted medically that some females are born with an XY chromosome but their appearance at birth is female. In these cases, their hormones may be different than females born with standard XX chromosomes. In 1985, an athlete named Maria Jose Martinez-Patino was on her way to competing at the Olympic level as a hurdler in track and field. During that era, athletes had to undergo genetic testing to prove their gender. Patino passed her first sex test and was awarded a femininity certificate, but she forgot the certificate when she went to try out for the World University Games in Kobe, Japan. She was given another test but, due to the results, was asked to fake an injury and not compete. For two months she was not given the results of her blood tests. According to the article Essay: Suspect Sex (Alison Carlson), it was leaked to the press when Martinez-Patino was diagnosed with complete androgen insensitivity. Due to the fall of publicity, she was evicted from the athletes' residence, rejected by the national team and her athletic dreams seemed all but over. In the article Personal story, a woman tried and tested by Maria Jose Martinez-Patino: “I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I lost friends, my boyfriend, hope and energy." She also revealed that she has no doubts that she is a woman and has no physical advantage based on her diagnosis. In 1988, he ended up coming out and 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) states that “women with congenital sex chromosome defects do not possess an unfair advantage and should be allowed to compete as women.” Scientists initially believed that women with these chromosomal malfunctions had similar advantages to men. However, “women born with aberrant chromosomes do not have unfair, masculine physical advantages that XX women who pass the tests cannot have due to other forms of biological variation.” Martinez-Patino won the case. Patino tried to qualify during trials for the 1992 Olympics, but due to a long absence from training while fighting for his cause, he missed qualifying by ten hundredths of a second. So, based on the historical presentation of Maria Jose Martinez-Patino and women with chromosomal abnormalities, the IOC may realize that these women who have XY chromosomes and women with regular XX chromosomes can still compete with each other and neither has an advantage athletic. The IOC still requires that all.
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