Today there
are many transparent athletics fighting for their right to compete with other
athletes in mega-event. Transparent is a relatively strange concept for me and then
I decide to share some background information after reading a related article
on Sport illustrated with LT 22.
For the first month of gestation, everyone is
female. After six
weeks embryos with a particular male gene, always found on the Y chromosome,
develop testicles, activating the cells responsible for testosterone production
and the accompanying athletic disparity between men and women. Testosterone,
which surges during male puberty, is the engine powering an array of a man’s
competitive advantages: greater height and weight, higher bone density,
increased muscle mass and greater proportion of oxygen-carrying red cells in
the blood. Contrast this with estrogen’s effects, and it is sensible enough to
segregate athletes by sex.
Even though
there is no published medical data on precisely how long it takes to negate the
athletic advantages of a lifetime of testosterone exposure. But one athlete has
tackled the question in personal way. Medical Physicist Joanna Harper, 55, who
was born male, began hormone therapy in order to transition to female in August’
04, Harper have been competing as a male age-group distance runner for years,
and she carefully documented the impact that suppressing testosterone and
taking estrogen had on her running. ‘I though I would get slower gradually.’
Harper says. ‘I felt the same when I ran.’ She says. ‘I just couldn’t go as
fast, it’s a certainly strong evidence
that my performance in both genders are approximately equal.’
Source: P.S.Torre & D. Epstein, (2012). The
Transgender Athlete. Sports Illustrated, 116 (22), 66-73
Liguang ‘Larry’
Ding
Kin 577
No comments:
Post a Comment