Welcome to this week’s episode of Hot Takedown, our podcast where the hot sports takes of the week meet the numbers that prove them right or tear them down. On this week’s show (July 28, 2015), we discuss a ruling by an athletic court that makes the distinction between male and female athletes harder to find. It ruled that a woman with elevated levels of testosterone could compete in women’s events. We dive into whether it’s even possible to “measure” gender. We also tackle why Boston rebuffed the Olympics and, after the U.S. men’s soccer team’s losses to Jamaica and Panama, whether Jurgen Klinsmann is the coach it needs. Plus, our Significant Digit of the week: Tom Brady’s text messages.
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Below are some links to what we discuss on the show:
- Sprinter Dutee Chand wins the right to compete.
- Kate Fagan on the International Olympic Committee’s gender testing policy.
- The tricky economics of hosting the Olympics.
- Does the U.S. hate the Olympics?
- Jurgen Klinsmann needs help with the U.S. team.
- Does soccer depend on luck too much to evaluate players?
- Significant Digit: 80 texts sent and received per day by Tom Brady on a phone that was destroyed. The number was revealed in the NFL’s ruling to uphold his four-game suspension.
Hot takedown: Defining an athlete’s gender
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