[jeremybms]

One possibility that could potentially work for certain sports, like weightlifting, where the competition is solely in terms of individual records, would be to do away with the existing division by weight and male/female and instead introduce a handicap model based on measured characteristics. For example, all players might be required to have blood testosterone levels recorded at regular intervals starting from a young age, and these measurements, along with characteristics like weight and height, could serve as inputs to the handicap model. The handicap model would be updated each year; potentially the model used in a given Olympic event for a given year could even be updated based on the results recorded in that same year.

Of course there are a lot of practical issues, and even if they were overcome, it is unclear that the results would be satisfying.

[nerdponx]

Makes sense for the Olympics or Worlds, but what about amateur competitions? High school wrestling leagues can't exactly start doing this stuff.

[tzs]

If you base it on trying to measure biological characteristics that we know (or think we know) affect performance, you are right--it would be impractical for all but leagues that the top athletes compete in.

If you made it based on past performance, though, it should be doable in even small amateur leagues.

That's how it works in chess. When you play tournament chess you get a rating based on your performances and the ratings of the established players you played.

Large tournaments use the "Swiss system". In round 1, you sort the players by rating, split the list in two, and the top rated player in the first list plays the top rated list in the second, and so on.

In subsequent rounds, you sort the players by results so far, split the list into separate lists for each score group, and then within each score group the top half by rating plays the bottom half.

Large tournaments typically have prizes for the top scores, but also "class" prizes. A class prize is for the top scores in certain rating ranges, say under 1800 or under 1200. A big tournament like the US Open might have a whole slew of class prizes, such as top score in under 1200, [1200, 1400), [1400, 1600), [1600, 1800), [1800, 2000).

There are women's chess tournaments but that is because much fewer women take up chess, and often women are uncomfortable if they are the only woman in a competition, especially at the scholastic level.

That environment can affect their performance due to "stereotype threat". When you are doing something in public that goes against a negative stereotype about your group you can feel a lot of pressure to avoid confirming the stereotype, and that extra pressure can actually make it harder for you to do your best. That in turn further discourages women from taking up tournament chess.

[cudgy]

Interesting idea, but I doubt it would solve the issue at hand. The sport must still determine how to factor in variables like sex and prior advantages of testosterone. You can bet that these determinations would be heatedly argued and pressure from all sides (including corporate sponsors and activists) would most likely pollute the sport.

[globular-toast]

Well, once we figure out exactly what attributes make an athlete good at a given sport, we might as well skip the sport entirely. Just give the medal to the guy with the greatest genetic potential to be good at that sport.

[twic]

No, this is the opposite idea - you give the medal to the person who makes the most of whatever genetic potential they have.

[s1artibartfast]

You could do that, but few are interested in the answer to that question. People want to know who is fastest, strongest, ect, not most improved since birth.

The challenges people overcome makes for a good story, but is not the core competition.

[raverbashing]

This is actually a good idea in some scenarios

For example, several sports have weight classes which are of course "abused" (as in, the athlete will do as much effort to fit onto a lower class - going through severe diets and dehydration)

Now if instead of weight you would measure "fat free mass" and maybe height, this would leave much less margin for maneuvers.

(Or, ok, you could re-weight the athlete just before the competition and disqualify them if there's a bigger difference from the weighting date - that would work as well)