S2 #9
You're flailing conspicuously, & failing lamentably.
There are several plausible explanations. Among those I consider most likely, you're allowing your emotion to over-rule your reason.
Not sure you know it. I'm w/ you on 99% of this civil rights issue. I certainly wouldn't deny how extraordinary these natural exceptions like Phelps are. But their exceptionality is natural.
"Basically a genetic freak. Should he be allowed to compete against normal people?" S2 #9
You have it precisely backward, deliberately perhaps.
The correct question is: should "normal people" compete against these miraculous natural variations. The answer is no, they should not, it's not fair to them.
Ordinarily I'd consider this too obvious to state, but given #9:
Olympic competition is a form of international competition, competition among nations, represented by each nation's best champions. The notion of sending in "normal people" to compete against them would be conspicuously cruel to "normal people". They should be spared the humiliation.
The problem with the slippery slope you advocate, exceeding natural standards, and allowing artificial augmentation, problem: the sky's the limit. You might agree 100 horsepower propellers on Olympic swimmer's prosthetic legs might seem an unfair advantage. BUT !! With you embracing the non-natural standard, would the 100 horsepower propellers be OK if not prosthetic, but bionic?
"Out of those 71,000 Olympians a total of 2 have been trans women & one came dead last the other cam 37th out of 42" Miller30
That's a charming anecdote dressed up as a statistic. The problem is Stare Decisis. Accept such "trans", and even if it isn't unfair in every case, it may be in others.
S2,
Remember President Carter (D-GA)?
During his single 4 year term Carter prevented the U.S. Olympic team from competing, Carter's way of middle-fingering the Soviets.
Our athletic competitors pleaded w/ Carter. They told the president this competition was a once in a lifetime opportunity, that many of them had been preparing for it for over a decade of their lives. And Carter threatened to pull the rug out from under their life's ambition. Reading about this helped me to understand Olympic competition from the competitor's POV. I still do.
"Out of those 71,000 Olympians a total of 2 have been trans women & one came dead last the other cam 37th out of 42" Miller30
Don't you think we should at least ask the 71,000 think about it? I would at least be interested to know if they have much passion about it one way or the other.
In any case, know what's funny about your position here S2? You're using "conclusion first" reasoning, a thought form you despise in religious believers. Their premise is god exists, and then they modify their perceptions to form a world that verifies their god exists. It's unmistakable in them with that, and in you with this. That means something else is going on here. Not sure you're leveraging it to maximum benefit. Anything I can do?