Because then there wouldn't be women competing in the top leagues of many sports. Men have a huge physical advantage. On marathons, for instance, there's a >10 minute gap. And people cannot watch each of these separate leagues, they usually want to watch the best in any sports class. It also wouldn't motivate women to play amateur sports if they get completely destroyed by most men.

The current sex-based split is imo still the fairest, though it does indeed cause some issues. The naming might not be ideal. The male class is basically the "open" class. Anyone can compete in it whenever they want. The women's class exists solely to give people who have not recently been under the influence of testosterone and other male hormones a chance to compete with other people with their body type. That's not only women, but should also allow for AFAB non-binary and trans guys as long as they haven't started T.

[–] onion@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a man and I will never be able to comoete in the top mens league either.

But I like how it works in boxing, where there's a light-weight class where I could compete fairly. That's what I was thinking of

[–] gerryflap@feddit.nl 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But weight doesn't mean anything. An equal weight man and woman will still be in a totally different class. Also, it's not about what you can do now, but about your potential. Someone who is currently physically within the "male range" will have to do way less to achieve the same performance as someone within the "female range". Mixing them together would be very demotivating to anyone not in the "male range" physically since they'd have to work insanely hard to even beat the less serious men.

Note: I'm using "male/female range" rather than man/woman because gender doesn't necessarily align with physical build.

[–] cannibalia 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Source? I'm afab and fucking sick of being told this with a flimsy hand wave of 'biology'. Give me some stats.

[–] OlPatchy2Eyes@dormi.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You need a source to know that a man and woman at the same weight class would be advantageous to the man?

[–] ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social 1 points 1 year ago

For it to be considered an empirically true statement, yes.

[–] onion@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

That is why I wrote "skill based" in my top comment, the weight classes where just an example