Thread by @RogerPielkeJr

Another pragmatist
Very good piece by @AlanLevinovitz
on trans athlete inclusion

Some comments follow ….

https://twitter.com/AlanLevinovitz/status/1423347247282982913

The Paralympic classification procedures are indeed a very good model for trans classification procedures, as I've long argued

They sit upon a body of history, policy, regulation and law

And there is one very important details that is worth highlighting . . .

This by @AlanLevinovitz is not quite right

The science of advantage in both Pistorius & Leeper cases was substantially similar, notably the presence of an advantage could not be determined conclusively in either case (uncertainty & dueling experts!)

So why one allowed, one not?

In Pistorius case the rules at the time said IAAF had to prove that OP had an unfair advantage
They couldn't (uncertainty!) so default was inclusion

After that IAAF changed the rules so that the burden of proof fell on the athlete to prove they did not have an unfair advantage

Proving a negative is really hard (maybe impossible in some cases)

When Leeper made the case for inclusion he could not prove that he did not have an advantage (uncertainty!) so he was excluded

But here is where it gets really interesting ...

While Leeper did not get to run at Tokyo, one result of his case was that the burden of proof was put back on IAAF (now WA) to prove that an athlete has an advantage

So we are back to the Pistorius era where uncertainty falls in favor of the athlete & inclusion, not exclusion

So if prosthetics regulations are taken as a model for a trans inclusion policy as a matter of stare decisis (always dicey in sports law & regs!) then it will be the responsibility of IFs to prove that a trans athlete has an unfair advantage with inclusion the default

Making tradeoffs bt fairness, inclusion & safety are done all the time in sport

The idea that one value is supreme is of course belied by reality
Otherwise we'd have perfectly fair, inclusive & safe competitions of clones, no categorization, & no competition respectively!

The IOC promises new regs within 2 months

Indications are that they will be devolving decision making to each IF

Expect a lot of debate and inconsistencies across sports

However, there is a good, tested, legal, science-based framework to model upon

theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul…

Here is a long and technical thread on the Blake Leeper case:

https://twitter.com/RogerPielkeJr/status/1321829952308719617?s=20

And here is a post of mine on prostheses and Paralympics as a model for trans inclusion policies:
rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/making-sense…