Wow, the UN doing something decent for a change. Even the title is eye catching “Violence against women and girls in sport”.
Some highlights
7. Female athletes are also more vulnerable to sustaining serious physical injuries when female-only sports spaces are opened to males,9 as documented in disciplines such as in volleyball, basketball and soccer. Instances have been reported where adult males have been included in teams of underage girls. Injuries have included knocked-out teeth, concussions resulting in neural impairment, broken legs and skull fractures. According to scientific studies, males have certain performance advantages in sports. One study asserts that, even in non-elite sport, “the least powerful man produced more power than the most powerful woman” and states that, where men and women have roughly the same levels of fitness, males’ average punching power has been measured as 162 per cent greater than females.
Really... they're just finding this stuff out?
12. Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty,30 thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity. Some sports federations mandate testosterone suppression for athletes in order to qualify for female categories in elite sports. However, pharmaceutical testosterone suppression for genetically male athletes – irrespective of how they identify – will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired. This approach may not only harm the health of the athlete concerned, but it also fails to achieve its stated objective. Therefore, the testosterone levels deemed acceptable by any sporting body are, at best, not evidence-based, arbitrary and asymmetrically favour males. Females are usually tested randomly to ensure that they are not using performance-enhancing drugs, while males are often not monitored to ensure that they are taking testosterone suppression drugs. To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport.
Well gee whizz.... whoulda thought!
32. There has been increased encroachment on female-only spaces in sports. Barring a few exceptions, sport has globally been separated into male and female categories because of male performance advantage. Sports have functioned on the universally recognized principle that a separate category for females is needed to ensure equal, fair and safe opportunities in sports.
33. Multiple studies offer evidence that athletes born male have proven performance advantages in sport throughout their lives, although this is most apparent after puberty. Historically, the sex difference in performance is larger than that explained by physiological and anatomical differences between males and females, in particular among lower-ranked athletes. These physiological advantages are not undone by testosterone suppression. Undermining the eligibility criteria for single-sex sports results in unfair, unlawful and extreme forms of discrimination against female athletes on the basis of sex. Given this reality, several international and national federations, such as World Aquatics, World Athletics, World Rugby, the International Cycling Union and others,90 have reinforced female-only categories while ensuring that all athletes can participate, including those with differences of sex development or gender identities other than the sex they were observed to have at birth.
It seems the sleeping giant is finally awakening!
The tide continues to turn against the madness of allowing biological males to compete in female sports.
