>> South African Olympic Medal-winning athlete Caster Semenya suffered another legal setback
earlier this week.
On Wednesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied Caster Semenya's appeal against
an International Association of Athletics Federations rule that would prevent her from
competing at the highest level of track.
The rule limits the testosterone levels of competitors in women's track events, and will
require Semenya to take medically unnecessary drugs in order to compete.
Now if you haven't been following this story, Caster Semenya naturally produces more testosterone
than the vast majority of other women.
And that is now being targeted with a very specific ruling in this particular case against
the specific events in track that Caster Semenya competes in.
Now this was obviously a bit of bad news for Caster Semenya.
When asked by reporters if she would take medication to lower her testosterone and allow
her to still run an 800 meter race, she said hell no, which you have to respect.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, this is some BS.
>> But there's one note to, let's start this on very high pedestal of hope and then we'll
bring everyone down to that sad depressing state.
She won today, her last race I believe that she ran today before she has to, quote unquote,
if she's going to look into this medication.
She won it today by a landslide.
She's a phenomenal athlete.
There's one part of this I want to discuss, and it's away from the actual athlete, and
just the person.
The amount of scrutiny that this woman has had to go through.
I was looking at the long list of tests that have been ran on her.
The exploration of her and looking into her genetics is a way of just probing at her as
if she's not a human being, right?
And this is not unfamiliar.
Go and look at Serena Williams' long track record of testing, and drug testing, and constant
vilification, and people policing her body.
And trying to make it as a way to comprehend that this powerful, outspoken, bold black
woman is brilliant at the sport.
So I do think that there's a lot of sexism involved in this, but it's not a surprise
that this is also another black woman involved.
So I look at her sex verification test in 2009, right.
And this is a quote directly from her.
And it really saddened me when I read it.
She said, I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate
and private details of my being.
Like constantly.
>> Yeah.
>> Looked at through a lens in order to diminish her accomplishments because of something that
is biological.
And this is another point that I wanted to bring up.
A Washington Post article today was fantastic in which they looked at Michael Phelps as
a phenom.
And the biological parts of his body that make him superior, that no one seems to be
policing.
He's got double-jointed ankles.
He's got a disproportionately vast wingspan.
And according to many studies, he produces almost half the lactic acid of a typical athlete.
And if you know sports, I've had many a cramps.
And I produce a lot of lactic acid.
It contributes to fatigue.
No one seems to be policing Michael Phelps.
Not just policing him.
Everyone calls him a marvel.
They call him wondrous.
They call him basically this specimen of sport that is to be put up and acknowledged.
But then we have this athlete that is to be policed, that is actually to have harmful
treatment in order to level the playing field when she's not doing anything to elevate herself
other than being who she is.
>> We're talking about how unfair it is in all this.
Because people worry about records and she keeps winning and breaking records and continue
to win multiple gold medals in all these races and all these events, these huge events.
Then they're worried about, well, people competing against her.
It's unfair to them.
Records, it's an age old sports term.
Records are made to be broken.
And if someone comes along and we like to use this term positively when we're talking
about the ones that we like, they're a freak.
He's a freak of nature.
Look at him get.
Whatever sport there's maybe a defensive lineman in football who's just bigger and stronger
and quicker than everyone else.
And it just happens.
Sports evolve and people will come along that take over.
And you won't allow it just because the people that happened to be in that same era are getting
beat, hey, sorry, bad luck for you, enjoy second place.
>> Yeah.
>> We don't change these things.
I'm glad you brought up Michael Phelps cuz I was gonna bring up Usain Bolt.
When they analyzed Usain Bolt's steps he takes in a 100 meter race, his legs are so long
he takes significantly less steps.
So it's not that his feet are moving that much faster, he's so much taller he eats up
ground.
What about the guy who's six feet tall, my God he's not gonna be able to compete.
Guess what?
He can't compete, he's gonna lose.
Because he's competing against Usain Bolt.
So when you're telling your grandkids, six foot tall track athlete, which I was too,
you go, hey, I ran against Usain Bolt, that freak of nature.
When we call him a freak of nature, we say it as a good thing, because the guy is surpassing
what all of the normal folks can do.
Somehow now that's a bad thing, when someone just can beat you constantly.
Stop crying and maybe start training a little harder.
>> Yeah, so we talked about this, this morning, Brad Ehrlich was on The Damage Report.
We talked about the story, and sort of jokingly, we talked about the lactic acid build up and
all that.
And in both of these cases, with production of testosterone, production of lactic acid,
you can make a connection between those things and the performance in the sport.
So I proposed jokingly, what we're gonna do is we're gonna inject him with more lactic
acid every time he competes.
And that's a joke, I guess.
We'd never do it.
How is that different?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> In what actual way is that any different than requiring her to artificially lower the
amount of testosterone that's their body produces?
>> Yeah, and what's also so disheartening is you look at it, you're expecting a lot
of people to come out in support of her in in this sport.
But you look at some of the comments that were made by fellow runners and one of the
competitors.
One was an Italian runner that said, these kind of people should not run with us.
Like how much you trying to alienate a person.
These kind of people will not run with us.
For me, she is not a woman, she is a man.
And that's why, as a person and my empathy, I lead with that first.
And I think it's not as much about protecting her records and her career.
That is also super important.
But as a person, to go through that consistent battering, and people to just constantly be
trying to hammer away your identity because of you superiority in sport.
And that's probably no surprise.
You will Serena Williams, I bet, come out in support and talk to her and offer support
because she has been going through this for years, where your magazines are constantly
talking about her shoulder width and how she plays.
And then what's also pretty funny is they're too masculine when they're great.
But then they're too emotional if they let their feelings come out.
>> Yeah, and as we put it on The Damage Report this morning, Fox news had a lower third.
Referring to Caster Semenya as a transgender athlete.
Not transgender.
Just 100% inaccurate.
>> Complete lie.
>> Yeah, it works for their narrative, I guess.