This week, the Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya of South Africa filed an appeal in a case that hinges on her right to compete as a woman. It’s the latest chapter in a fight that’s gone on for years, and that raises thorny questions about fairness and ethics in sport.

Semenya, 28, is a two-time gold medalist in the 800 meter event. She is asking the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to throw out a ruling issued earlier this month by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, or CAS, which is based in Lausanne.

That ruling upheld regulations that will require some female track athletes with naturally-elevated testosterone levels to lower those levels with drugs or surgery, if they want to compete in certain women’s events on the international stage.

Just two days after losing that court fight, Semenya took to the track in the Diamond League championships in Doha, Qatar, and blistered past the competition in her marquee event, the 800 meters.

“My word! Is there any end to her talent?” marveled an announcer as he watched Semenya pull away from the pack in the home stretch. “Is this, as some people have suggested, something of an act of defiance, given what’s been going on?”

In a statement when she filed her appeal, Semenya said, “I am a woman and I am a world-class athlete. The IAAF will not drug me or stop me from being who I am.”

The IAAF is the International Association of Athletics Federations, the international governing body for track and field, which imposed the regulations, arguing that the rules are necessary to create a level playing field in women’s events.

In its 2-1 ruling, CAS found that while the regulations are discriminatory, “such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the legitimate objective of ensuring fair competition in female athletics.”

It’s not simple to define sex

The IAAF regulations apply to certain athletes with what are known as Differences of Sex Development, or DSDs, which means they were born with anatomy that doesn’t neatly fit into the binary, male or female categories. These individuals are also known as intersex.

“People think that it’s simple to define sex. It’s not,” says Dr. Eric Vilain, a geneticist who specializes in the study of sexual development at Children’s National Health System and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Vilain, who testified as an expert witness on Caster Semenya’s behalf, explains that the biology of sex classification is anything but straightforward; there can be a wide spectrum of variations.

“It’s really difficult to support a rule that seems to be based more on a preconceived idea of what a woman should be, rather than who a woman is,” he says.

Caster Semenya was raised as a female and is legally female. She’s fighting rules that affect DSD athletes who have what are typically male, XY chromosomes; who were born with internal testes; and have testosterone levels higher than the typical female range.

An unfair advantage?

Supporters of the rules say higher testosterone gives these athletes an unfair performance advantage, since it provides a boost in power, endurance, and speed.

So, they say, if you want to create a level playing field, the new restrictions make sense.

“Fairness is an extremely subjective word,” says Joanna Harper, who researches gender and sport, and testified on behalf of the IAAF. “I prefer the word equitable.”

Harper says, “We separate male athletes and female athletes not on the basis of gender identity, or legal sex, or how people are identified at birth, but rather on biological characteristics that make men so much better at sport than women.”

Harper, author of a forthcoming book entitled Sporting Gender: the History, Science and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes, argues that the rules should not be seen as stripping a female athlete of her identity.

“Whether someone is a woman or someone is a man or perhaps somewhere in between, is a very complicated thing,” Harper says. “The separation of athletes into male and female categories is something that I call creating an ‘athletic gender.’ And it’s merely one component of a human being’s existence.”

Creating a ‘protected space’ for women to compete

For Duke Law School professor Doriane Coleman, the IAAF rules guarantee a “protected space” for women to compete. Coleman is a former 800 meter runner who studies sex and sport.

“If eligibility for women’s sports events can’t be based on biological sex traits, or at least one biological sex trait,” she says, “then you won’t see females on the podium.”

Coleman points to the women’s 800 meter final at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, where all three podium spots were won by women who say they will be affected by the new rules on DSD athletes: Caster Semenya, who took gold; Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, who won silver; and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, who won bronze.

“It was very frustrating to watch it happen,” Coleman says. “It wasn’t about the individuals; it was about the goals of women’s sport … And it was really hard to know that on that day there would not be a female, biologically speaking on the podium in the women’s 800.”

Definitions are difficult

But how to define exactly who is a biological woman is not at all clear-cut.

“Sex is not defined by one particular parameter,” says geneticist Eric Vilain. What’s more, he says, “for many human reasons, it’s so difficult to exclude women who’ve always lived their entire lives as women — to suddenly tell them ‘you just don’t belong here.’ Because the implication is to tell them ‘well, you’re not really a woman.’ And I think society should not accept that easily.”

The new rules apply only to certain distance events, from 400 meters to one mile, where, the IAAF claims, runners get the most performance benefit from testosterone. Scientists who testified on behalf of Semenya dispute those data.

If the affected athletes want to race in those restricted events, the IAAF says, they can compete in the male classification.

Dr. Vilain says that’s absurd: “If the same athlete could be a woman in one and a man in another, it makes absolutely no sense,” he says.

Medically suppressing testosterone

As for how the DSD athletes can suppress their testosterone, they have three choices: they can have their testes surgically removed; they can get a monthly injection that blocks testosterone; or they can take birth control pills.

But all of those options — even birth control pills — come with risks, says Dr. Veronica Gomez-Lobo, the founder of the Differences of Sex Development clinic at Children’s National Health System.

“Even though we tend to think of [oral contraceptives] as being very safe,” she says, “they can cause blood clots that can travel to your lung and and can be very dangerous. And although that’s very rare, that can happen. So you’re forcing somebody to take a medication she doesn’t need and she doesn’t want to take, and she’s incurring the side effects and risks of that medication only to compete.”

‘Inverse doping’

The World Medical Association, or WMA, is so angered by the IAAF regulations that they’ve urged doctors around the world to refuse to comply. The WMA calls the regulations unethical and a violation of human rights.

“There is no medical need and no medical indication for this therapy, and therefore, doctors should not prescribe it,” says Dr. Frank Montgomery, the WMA’s chair of council.

Montgomery calls it “inverse doping” to require athletes to take drugs that will sabotage their performance.

“We are against doping of any sort,” Montgomery says. “Ethically and medically this fairness argument doesn’t carry. It is definitely not a way to tell someone you’re a woman only if you take certain medications.”

None of this is simple.

“No matter what you do, you’re going to end up hurting someone. And I think that’s what makes this topic so difficult,” says Steve Magness, who coaches professional runners and writes about the science of performance.

“You can at the same time feel incredible compassion toward Semenya and DSD athletes and say that ‘hey, what’s happening isn’t right’. But at the same time, you can say we protect the women’s division of sport for a reason and we have to decide somewhere where we want to divide that.”

For now, these rules apply only to track and field. It will be up to other sports federations to decide whether to follow suit.

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A young child was struck by a foul ball off the bat of Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr. in a terrifying scene during the fourth inning of Wednesday’s nationally televised game in Houston.

Almora, who kept his eyes on the ball as it whizzed past the third base line, passed the existing safety netting and into the stands at Minute Maid Park, clasped his head in his hands and let out a cry as fans gasped. Grief-stricken, he then fell to his knees burying his face in his arms. Fellow teammate Jason Heyward and manager Joe Maddon attempted to console him as he cried.

Meanwhile, the Astros infield also dropped to their knees as a man, who seemed to be with the girl, scooped her up and rushed the child up the stadium stairs.

Almora struggled to play through the remainder of the inning. When it was over, he walked into the stands where he spoke with a security guard. The conversation ended in an embrace with Almora becoming overcome with emotion.

“All we heard was screaming,” said David LeVasseur told the Houston Chronicle. “We saw this dad pick up a child and run up the stairs. He took off running.”

LeVasseur said the ball eventually landed at his feet.

“I (came) upstairs and see the first-aid guys up there and the dad is holding the girl. She (was) alert, she’s conscious, she’s fine. I was just going to give somebody in the family the ball. They kind of, naturally, shook it off. I asked the first-aid guy if she was OK and he said he didn’t know.”

In a statement the Astros confirmed the girl was taken to the hospital but offered no details on her condition. “We are not able to disclose any further details at this time. The Astros send our thoughts and prayers to the entire family,” the team said.

Speaking with reporters following the game, Almora said, “As soon as I hit it, the first person I locked eyes on was her.” He said the rest of the at-bat “was kind of a blur.”

“I had to try to keep my composure during that at-bat, but when that half-inning was over I just couldn’t hold it anymore,” he added.

In 2017 New York Yankee Todd Frazier hit a foul ball that struck a young girl in the stands. The incident renewed the debate over more extensive protection for fans in major league ballparks, eventually leading all 30 teams to implement extended safety nets in 2018.

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Nepal’s tourism board is defending the number of permits it issued to climb Mount Everest for this season in which 11 people have died. And the country says it has no plans to restrict the number of permits issued next year, but rather that it hopes to attract still more tourists and climbers.

“There has been concern about the number of climbers on Mount Everest but it is not because of the traffic jam that there were casualties,” Mohan Krishna Sapkota, secretary at the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, told the Associated Press. He instead pointed to weather conditions, insufficient oxygen supplies and equipment.

“In the next season we will work to have double rope in the area below the summit so there is better management of the flow of climbers,” he told the news service.

The image of a crowded Everest linked to the death toll was spurred by a viral photo last week that showed climbers in their neon gear, packed in a tight, unforgiving queue to the highest point on Earth.

“You essentially have something that looks like people are waiting in line for concert tickets to a sold-out show, only instead of trying to get in to see their favorite artist, they’re trying to reach the top of the world and are running into traffic,” Outside magazine editor at large Grayson Schaffer told NPR’s Weekend Edition.

It’s a traffic jam that can turn fatal. “The danger there is that, at that altitude, the body just can’t survive,” Schaffer said. “They’re breathing bottled oxygen. And when that oxygen runs out because you’re waiting in line, you are at much higher risk for developing high-altitude edemas and altitude sickness — and dying of those illnesses while you’re still trying to reach the summit.”

Everest’s very highest reaches are known as the death zone. And once a climber reaches it, all bets are off.

“Once you get above about 25,000 feet, your body just can’t metabolize the oxygen,” said Schaffer, who has been to Everest but not the death zone. “Your muscles start to break down. You start to have fluid that builds up around your lungs and your brain. Your brain starts to swell. You start to lose cognition. Your decision making starts to become slow. And you start to make bad decisions.”

And that breakdown in cognition is happening to people who have often flown hundreds or thousands of miles and paid significant sums of money to achieve their dream of reaching the top.

“The reason that people try to climb Mount Everest is because it grabs a hold of them and they feel like they just have to make the summit,” Schaffer said. “And so you’ll have some people in distress and not necessarily getting help from the people who are around them. It’s this kind of bizarre thing to be surrounded by hundreds of people, and yet totally alone at the top of the world.”

Nepal’s government doesn’t put a specific limit on permits. This year 381 people were permitted to climb – a number the AP says is the highest ever. Foreign climbers must pay a fee of $11,000 for a spring summit of Everest, and provide a doctor’s note attesting to their fitness.

A few reasons made last week on Everest such a crowded one, in which eight people died in two days. One factor is that China has limited the permits for the Tibetan side of the mountain, driving more people to the Nepalese side.

Another factor is weather. Alan Arnette, a four-time Everest climber, told CNN that bad weather left just five days ideal for reaching the summit. “So you have 800 people trying to squeeze through a very small window,” he said.

Hence the traffic. “There were more people on Everest than there should be,” Kul Bahadur Gurung, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, a group comprising all expedition operators in Nepal, told the AP.

Now Nepal’s tourist board finds itself working to counter the narrative of that viral photo. On Tuesday, the tourism board’s social media accounts shared a tweet by Nepali climber Karma Tenzing.

“Everest unfairly trashed via viral image of ‘traffic jam’ on May 22 2019,” he wrote. “Below are REAL photos of my climb to Summit on May 15. Devoid of jams & I spent an HOUR at summit. With only a 3-4 day weather window & ~300 Everest Summiteer annually, jams will exist. Spread the truth!”

In a statement Monday, the tourism board expressed condolences to the bereaved family and friends of those who died, and added that it takes the matter seriously and was “disturbed” by the news.

“Nepal recognises the need to work closely with expedition companies and teams to control safety of climber flows in the face of climatic risks and sensitivities,” it said.

But it also pushed back on the idea that it was to blame. It said it had limited the number of permits and had issued them under stringent rules.

“As is known, climbing Everest is a hardcore adventure activity, a daunting experience even for the most trained and professional climbers,” it said in the statement. And the tourist board said it had a request for the travel industry, the media, and potential future climbers: “be aware of all the risk factors included in climbing peaks above 8,000 m. Intense training, precautions and attention to every minor detail, are of extreme importance for climbing the Himalayan peaks.”

In other words: no one ever said climbing Everest was safe.

This year has been the deadliest on Everest since 2015. An avalanche in 2014 killed of 16 Sherpas. And the mountain’s most famous tragedy happened in 1996, when eight climbers died in one day, a harrowing event recounted by Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air.

Since then, little has changed, Schaffer says – except “it’s gotten exponentially worse.”

“In that incident, there was actually a storm that came. And that’s why you had eight people die in that tragedy. Now what we’re seeing and what we will probably see every year forward is eight to 10 people dying just in a routine manner, just because of the sheer number of people trying to fit onto the route.”

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Sports Illustrated has been sold for the second time in less than two years. This time, however, the $110 million purchase by Authentic Brands Group places far more importance on the iconic magazine’s reputation than the publication itself — pushing the name further into such ventures as gambling and live events.

The Meredith Corp. acquired Sports Illustrated in January 2018 along with a bunch of other titles as part of its purchase of Time Inc. Meredith moved to unload most Time Inc. magazines that were not focused on its primary audience: female readers. And those moves also reflected the flagging finances of major legacy publications.

So Meredith sold Time magazine to Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne Benioff; it dealt Fortune to a Thai entrepreneur, Chatchaval Jiaravanon, and it killed Money magazine’s print edition.

Sports Illustrated dominated sports journalism for decades, featuring the articles of such powerful writers as Frank Deford, George Plimpton and Gary Smith, and the photojournalism of such photographers as Neil Leifer. The magazine incorporated clear-eyed looks at civil and human rights, politics, power and money through the prism of professional, collegiate and amateur sport. A cover was considered a feat the equal to many accomplishments on the field of play.

Yet the immediacy of sports news, on cable television and online, in particular, from nimble and caustic websites to TV giant ESPN, chipped away at its seeming indispensability. So did larger societal shifts in how people consume information and news.

“Sports Illustrated had so much residual goodwill among its readers and entire audience,” Terry McDonell, the former top editor over the magazine, tells NPR. “Everybody remembered something about sports in relationship to Sports Illustrated. I don’t think that’s gone away. It might have shrunk a bit.”

A Meredith spokeswoman says Sports Illustrated remains profitable with a 27-issue-per-year schedule. Yet the company has now sold Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands in a deal that hinges on the acquisition of the magazine’s intellectual property. That includes its photo archive, its past sportsman and sportswoman of the year covers, and the annual swimsuit issues, which feature female models in bikinis — including supermodels from Cheryl Tiegs and Christie Brinkley in decades past to Tyra Banks.

“As a trailblazer and cultural phenomenon, Sports Illustrated has created moments and experiences for its readers that are unmatched by any other sports brand,” Nick Woodhouse, president and chief marketing officer of Authentic Brands, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Meredith to extend Sports Illustrated’s legacy and connect the brand with new audiences around the world.

Authentic Brands also controls the rights to a wide array of brands, including such pop cultural figures as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley; such sports figures as Julius Erving and Shaquille O’Neill; and such fashion lines as Juicy Couture.

Meredith will continue to publish the magazine and run its website for now — paying Authentic Brands a licensing fee to do so while maintaining editorial independence, according to both companies. Meredith’s president of national media said he would integrate SI‘s print and digital products into Meredith’s operations.

In a memo to staff, Sports Illustrated editor in chief Chris Stone wrote that the magazine would seek to reach greater audiences on other platforms — including in live events, conferences, gambling and video games. He also cited the development of television shows from SI material. And he praised Meredith for striking a deal that honored the magazine’s work.

“This deal only made sense if we continue to generate premium journalism and storytelling,” Stone said. The guarantee that the magazine would continue to publish under Meredith, however, lasts just two years.

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