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Let's take hormones. Once upon a time there is an athlete who has naturally high level of certain hormone. Research is conducted and the anti-doping agency move

Let's take hormones. Once upon a time there is an athlete who has naturally high level of certain hormone. Research is conducted and the anti-doping agency moves up the level of how much the hormone is legal to have in the blood. Now all competitors will take additional hormones to reach, but not cross said level. As long as this works, they think of themselves as not doping and levelling the playing field. But they are taking hormones.

kgran 6y ago
See: World Athletics Female Eligibility Regulations on testosterone levels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Athletics_Female_Eligibility_Regulations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Athletics_Female_Eligibi... Case of Caster Semenya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya
wildmanx 6y ago
Morally, taking that hormone is still wrong. And so should it be according to the rules too. If you now answer that it's unfair that the person with naturally occurring higher levels can have it but those with lower levels can't "level" the playing field, well, tough luck. That's just the lottery that gives some people an advantage in certain sports. We all accept that some people are naturally tall and therefore have advantages in basketball. Or some people have naturally stronger VO2 max and thereby advantages in endurance sports. The competition is how far you can get with the _natural state_ of your body, plus training. Not how far you can get as long as everybody pumps some substances up to a previously-agreed-upon threshold. Those thresholds are just the sad plan-B solution of anti-doping agencies if they can't directly measure doping substances and need to resort to measuring the effects instead. That actually disadvantages those with naturally higher effects. Nobody would think of restricting maximum leg length, and as long as your legs are not longer than that it's fine to surgically extend them.
- the-dude 6y ago
  So why do we have different leagues for men and women then?
  - Hyolobrika 6y ago
    Good question
  - wildmanx 6y ago
    To allow half the planet's population to also be competitive in sports. And often times, the style/technique slightly differs between them too. In some sports you even have different weight classes. Rowing has 2, wrestling has 6 (olympic), boxing has 8-10 (olympic). The techniques there also differ slightly. And there are other partitionings of the population too that restrict in who can participate in a competition. You have world championships, but you also have nationals. And regional competitions. And junior leagues. And school competitions. Then there is also the paralympics. You can find all that reasonable or ridiculous, but I'm not sure how that's related to doping.

kgran 6y ago

See: World Athletics Female Eligibility Regulations on testosterone levels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Athletics_Female_Eligibility_Regulations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Athletics_Female_Eligibi... Case of Caster Semenya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya

wildmanx 6y ago

Morally, taking that hormone is still wrong. And so should it be according to the rules too. If you now answer that it's unfair that the person with naturally occurring higher levels can have it but those with lower levels can't "level" the playing field, well, tough luck. That's just the lottery that gives some people an advantage in certain sports. We all accept that some people are naturally tall and therefore have advantages in basketball. Or some people have naturally stronger VO2 max and thereby advantages in endurance sports. The competition is how far you can get with the _natural state_ of your body, plus training. Not how far you can get as long as everybody pumps some substances up to a previously-agreed-upon threshold. Those thresholds are just the sad plan-B solution of anti-doping agencies if they can't directly measure doping substances and need to resort to measuring the effects instead. That actually disadvantages those with naturally higher effects. Nobody would think of restricting maximum leg length, and as long as your legs are not longer than that it's fine to surgically extend them.

the-dude 6y ago
So why do we have different leagues for men and women then?
- Hyolobrika 6y ago
  Good question
- wildmanx 6y ago
  To allow half the planet's population to also be competitive in sports. And often times, the style/technique slightly differs between them too. In some sports you even have different weight classes. Rowing has 2, wrestling has 6 (olympic), boxing has 8-10 (olympic). The techniques there also differ slightly. And there are other partitionings of the population too that restrict in who can participate in a competition. You have world championships, but you also have nationals. And regional competitions. And junior leagues. And school competitions. Then there is also the paralympics. You can find all that reasonable or ridiculous, but I'm not sure how that's related to doping.