Are sports self-destructing?

Case in point: Sports usually are divided up into men's and women's divisions, yet specialists insist that gender is a continuum not a discrete A or B kind of thing. Some women athletes, especially in track, resemble men to a degree that they have to be medically tested to confirm their womanhood, and sometimes it's a close call.

Also, last Saturday, Ryan Lochte, the 27-year-old swimming star may have humbled Michael Phelps to claim gold in the 400m individual medley, but a teenage girl, Ye Shiwen, had just swum even faster. Ye Shiwen, 16, was 0.17 quicker than Lochte over the last length.

Will sports eventually have to become unisex?

Case in point: In this Olympics, one athlete has been allowed to compete with artificial legs consisting of carbonfiber springs. At what point does body modification make times and scores meaningless? or will there have to be two sets of records, one for natural competitors and ones whose times require an asterix?

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Permalink Reply by Anastasia Collins on August 1, 2012 at 8:32am

I think that when we originally evolved into homo sapiens and were all hunter-gatherer types, women and men were much more equal physically, as is the case in most other species. However with the innovation of farming, women stayed home, had kids, did less hunting gathering etc etc and over the years did not have to be strong, fast, tough to survive. I think this is more so the cause of the inherit differences between men and women, rather than being originally evolving or being created (adam & eve) that way. The gene for strong women has not been selected against over the years, simply ignored.

That all being said, women have been more and more encouraged to be involved in sports and practice athleticism in the recent years. It stands to reason that some woman will still be fairly strong and tough, as I said before athleticism was not selected against, simply ignored. Women are even starting to be allowed in Combat MOS's in the military, as they are being found to be as competent as men in these fields. In time (thousands and thousands of years), women and men will most likely even out physically. Whether or not that happens before the sun explodes or we nuke each other and all die anyway... I'm not sure.

And as far as the competitor with an artificial limb, I know the Paralympics occur a few weeks after the Olympics, I'm not sure why he competed in the regular Olympics as opposed to the Para... I know a lot of military personel who have lost a limb and now have that carbonfiber spring appartus you mentioned, which they call the "Cheetah Leg/Limb". It actually tends makes them faster than they were before the limb loss.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Holm on August 1, 2012 at 1:30pm

Lol at close call, but seriously aside from football, I could see this happening in the near future, but the real question is, will the world accept unisex sports?