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Comment by homeonthemtn | Hacker News Reader

I always thought the more elegant approach to all of this was to add a mixed sex league. Keep the traditions, add a novel new one, and let people consent to who they want to compete against and watch

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That already exists. That’s the men’s category. There are no rules forbidding women from competing in men’s categories at Olympic events.

Correct and it’s the same in many sports. Theres generally not “men’s golf” and “women’s golf” there’s just “golf” and “women’s golf.”

Women are not excluded from golf tournaments, but the requirements to compete (primarily how far one hits the ball) are vastly different. Thats why both play the same golf course, just from different tee boxes.

Right but why not a specific carve out instead of a loop hole? If it's called "men's" the intention is clear.

If it's called "mixed league" the intention is clear

I think they're trying to say that if there was a mixed league it would always end up being 100% men at the highest level. Like, mixed league basketball would almost certainly be just men at the highest level because of how the sport works.

I sometimes play mixed vball rec leagues, the definition of a mixed league in our rec league here, says we "have to have at least 2 women playing at any time"

So maybe I think what they mean by "mixed league" is not a "Maybe Mixed League" but like "Definitely Mixed League" as in mixed participants being a strict requirement somehow?

A bunch of people here are conflating low stakes amateur sports with elite sports.

Mixed league works fine for your company softball team. Not so much for professional sports.

In the sports I competed in, the men's class was really an open class. (EDIT: Looking at past results, we didn't even have a "men's division". There was just a separate women's division) Anyone could compete in it. The women's classes were the only restricted classes.

There are several sports where female physiology (skeletal structure, etc) has inherent advantages over male physiology where this may not be true, though.

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