>The reason for this is the premise of fair competition that identical people should compete. No, actually the reason is that it makes both watching and compet

>The reason for this is the premise of fair competition that identical people should compete. No, actually the reason is that it makes both watching and competing more interesting. A competition where women never got anywhere near first place would mean women would simply stop showing up (or vice versa). A boxing championship with no weight classes would mean no lightweight boxers would sign up. On the other hand, with enough subcategories you can get to the point where some competitors win by default, or where you have championships of one or two matches. So no, it's not arbitrary to separate competitors by some physical characteristics and not others. There are practical reasons to do so that are unrelated to the whims of organizers.