But come on. How does telling a woman she can’t play as a woman, but “assuring” her that she might be able to qualify to run in the men’s race, not judging her gender identity or sex?

There’s no question that some athletes raised as girls and playing as women do not have female-typical bodies. Some were born with differences of sex development (intersex conditions) that mean their bodies have a blend of male-typical and female-typical traits.

A 2014 study by I.A.A.F.-affiliated scientists estimates that 7 in 1,000 elite women athletes have a Y chromosome with hyperandrogenism, a rate “140 times higher than expected in the general population.” And that 7 in 1,000 figure would be even higher if it counted all the differences of sex development that can cause hyperandrogenism.

But the truth is that no elite athlete’s body can be called fully “typical” in a statistical sense, and every other type of inborn advantage is allowed in sports. You can be born with natural advantages in terms of muscle development, oxygen processing, vision — all of those are allowed, without question. We’d never entertain the idea that Michael Phelps should be barred from swimming competitions because his extraordinary “wingspan” gives him an advantage.

As Chand put it in her court testimony: “I am unable to understand why I am asked to fix my body in a certain way simply for participation as a woman. I was born a woman, reared up as a woman, I identify as a woman and I believe I should be allowed to compete with other women, many of whom are either taller than me or come from more privileged backgrounds, things that most certainly give them an edge over me.”

It’s worth noting that men who naturally make extraordinarily high levels of testosterone are allowed to play without question. Additionally, the World Anti-Doping Agency, which regulates doping in sports, allows men who can prove they have naturally low levels of testosterone to take testosterone supplementation without considering it doping. So how is this just about natural hormone levels and fairness — and not actually about cultural norms of sex and gender?

Elite sports agencies also allow non-intersex women to manipulate their hormones, through birth control pills, to ensure that they are at the most advantageous part of the menstrual cycle when they compete. That’s considered fair. In fact, I learned about this from a world-class marathoner who admitted, at an I.O.C. meeting in 2013 where she and I were consulting on sex-testing, that she does this herself.