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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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Regardless of how evasive IOC is being, I'm not inclined to assign IBA enough trust to move the needle from the zero hypothesis in this case. Not when their Russian pro-Russian CEO has every reason to be pissed that Russia isn't allowed to compete in the Olympics and every reason to stoke Olympic trans athlete controversies.

You don't find it strange that the IBA would stake its reputation on a claim that, if false, could be easily disproven with a simple cheek swab and PCR test? Don't you find it strange that neither the IOC nor either of the accused athletes have chosen to disclose any details on their medical condition?

And even if you believe that the IBA wanted to throw shade regardless of the truth (which is plausible), don't you agree that they'd be more likely to do that if they had actual proof? (Which is definitely not impossible; intersex athletes have been outed by sex tests many times, that's why the IOC stopped sex testing in the first place.) If so, you should agree that by Bayes theorem, that the fact that they have raised the issue increases the probability that the athletes are male.

Don't you find it strange that neither the IOC nor either of the accused athletes have chosen to disclose any details on their medical condition?

IIRC they also either didn't appeal or withdrew their appeals after the original IBA ruling. Possibly because going further would have made the matter clear, as with Caster Semenya.