Gender verification in sports

Gender checks in sports are medical and genetic tests that are carried out to determine gender in sports competitions in which female athletes are eligible to compete .

history

Mandatory sex tests for women were first held at the European Athletics Championships in Budapest in 1966 . At that time, various female athletes from the Soviet Union and several Eastern European countries were suspected of being men. The test consisted of a simple physical exam. The women stood naked in front of a medical panel and stepped forward to have their bodies and genitals palpated. There had to be a real vagina and no penis to be found. Some women felt strongly degraded by the examination and also expressed this. Their countries protested at the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Ewa Kłobukowska , the first known sportswoman to be disqualified for a chromosome test in 1967 after several gold medals and world records. Illustration from Lekka Atletyka , December 1964.

The IOC responded to the criticism and in 1967 ordered a new, less intrusive technique. A swab from the inside of the cheek was tested for sex chromosomes . If two X chromosomes were found under the microscope, the athlete was approved. If there was a discrepancy, it was refused. The IOC allowed the athletes to pretend a sudden illness or injury and quietly withdraw from the sport. These tests were first carried out for the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble and the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City . Other major associations and events adopted this practice, including the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). A sporting career was therefore ruled out for female athletes who did not match the chromosomal norm. In athletics, nine world records valid in 1967 had been set by intersex people .

In the mid-1970s, the Barr test ( Buccal Smear , Sex Chromatin Test , Barr Body ), a sex chromatin test, which had meanwhile been regarded as unreliable , was replaced by a DNA analysis .

From 1990 gender verification was questioned at the IAAF and from 1992 no longer generally applied. It is only intended there for individual athletes if questions about gender arise. Other organizations followed suit. Such tests are banned in Norway . At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer , the Norwegians refused to perform gender controls. The IOC therefore had experts flown in from France. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta , 3387 female athletes were tested, which meant a large financial outlay. Eight women tested positive for the first time and further checks were made. Androgen resistance was found in seven of these, partial androgen resistance in four and complete androgen resistance in three . The eighth athlete had had a gonadectomy and a steroid 5α-reductase defect was suspected. After deliberations, they were issued gender verification certificates and allowed to run.

At the International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Conference on Women and Health , a resolution was passed in 1996 which called for the current gender verification process to be discontinued during the Olympic Games. In the period that followed, various professional associations advocated repeal of gender verification, including the American Medical Association , the American Academy of Pediatrics , the American College of Physicians , the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology , the Endocrine Society , and the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society and the American Society of Human Genetics . It was argued that with today's sportswear and the need to provide a urine sample under supervision for doping controls, it was virtually impossible for a man in disguise to escape detection. In addition, the gender verification procedure is complex, expensive and counterproductive. Finally, in 1999, the IOC's Athletes' Commission asked the board to stop testing. The general test was then discontinued, but like the IAAF, the committee reserves the right to check female athletes in individual cases. This regulation first took effect at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City .

At the 2002 volleyball world championship in Berlin , the gender test prescribed by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball was carried out as a Barr test for all athletes who had not yet competed in a world championship or the Olympic Games.

New regulations were introduced at the Olympics after 1996 that allowed transsexual athletes to participate in the Olympics after undergoing gender reassignment surgery . The controversies surrounding this topic continued internationally in the following years up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing .

With effect from May 2011, the IAAF revised its guidelines for dealing with athletes who have undergone gender reassignment surgery. While originally female athletes can easily compete in men's competitions after an operation, originally male athletes who want to compete in women's competitions after an operation can be required to undergo hormone tests and, as a result, hormone treatments, in an individually regulated procedure in order to avoid a possible distortion of competition. At the same time, similar rules were introduced for dealing with female athletes who show symptoms of hyperandrogenism .

Process adjustment

On January 19, 2018, the International Court of Justice (CAS) decided that the controversial rule on hyperandrogenism of the IAAF World Athletics Association would remain suspended for a further six months, and that the IAAF should announce how the association intends to implement its provision by then. On July 24, 2015, the CAS suspended the IAAF rule on hyperandrogenism because of the lawsuit brought by Indian sprinter Dutee Chand and demanded scientific evidence that hyperandrogenic female athletes have a significant performance advantage. The IAAF submitted the requested documents on September 29, 2017, and a grace period was granted until June 19, 2018 for rectification.

At the end of April 2018, the IAAF announced that from November 1, 2018, three criteria for admission in the women's classes in the disciplines of 400 meters (including hurdles) up to one mile and in combined competitions such as relays over these distances will be met must: Athletes who want to compete in international competitions in the future or who want to set a world record must be recognized by the court as female or intersexual (or equivalent) and reduce their blood testosterone level to below five nmol / L over a period of at least six months (e.g. through the use of hormonal contraceptives ) and, as long as you want to take part in international competitions, then keep this continuously below the reference value.

According to the IAAF, most top female athletes have a testosterone level of 0.12 to 1.79 nmol / L in their blood; in men, the value after puberty would be in the range of 7.7 to 29.4 nmol / L. In July 2017, the IAAF published a study according to which women with high testosterone levels had advantages in the range of 1.8 to 4.5 percent in the 400-meter run , 400-meter hurdles , 800-meter run and hammer throw and have pole vault .

Known individual cases

Tests positive at the Olympics

year	place	Pos. Tests	Women in total. Rounded
1972	Munich	3	1280
1976	Montreal	0	1800
1984	los Angeles	6th	2500
1992	Albertville	15th	> 2000
1996	Atlanta	8th	3000

• 1932: Stanisława Walasiewicz , a Polish athlete who won the women's gold medal in the 100-meter run at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. After her death, it was determined that Walasiewicz was a man.
• 1936: Dora Ratjen , a German athlete at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin .
• 1964: Ewa Kłobukowska , a Polish athlete who won the women's bronze medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In 1967 she was the first known international athlete to be excluded from further competitions after a sex test had been ordered.
• 1966: Tamara Press and her sister Irina Press , Soviet athletes, and Iolanda Balaș , a Romanian high jumper , did not take part in the Olympic Games after the introduction of the sex tests at the Olympic Games from 1966.
• 1967: In the run-up to the 1968 Winter Olympics, for which mandatory sex tests were required for the first time, it was found that Erik (a) Schinegger is male. Further examinations revealed a pseudo- hermaphroditism.
• 1976: At the tennis competitions of the Ladies US Open is Renée Richards not admitted 1976th
• 1986: María José Martínez-Patiño (* 1961), a Spanish hurdler , won the 1986 Spanish national championships in the 60-meter hurdles. She was stripped of the win and expelled from the Spanish national team when it was revealed that she had been tested as genetically male using the Barr test in 1985 . Two and a half years later, she was rehabilitated.
• 1992: At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona , according to information from Johann Olav Koss, an anonymous mother of two failed the test and left without further checks.
• 1996: At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , eight female athletes failed the test, but were allowed to participate in the Games after further review and consultation. (See story)
• 2006: Santhi Soundarajan , an Indian middle-distance runner, won the silver medal in the women's 800 meter run at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha , Qatar . After a sex test, she was stripped of her medal.
• 2009: Caster Semenya , a South African middle-distance runner, won the gold medal in the 800-meter run at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Because of her masculine appearance and deep voice, a sex test was ordered. On July 6, 2010, the IAAF announced that Semenya can start again in the women.

See also : List of intersex athletes

See also

• Sex determination
• Gender differences in sport

literature

• Barbara Klimke: The end of the catastrophe. In: Berliner Zeitung . September 14, 2000, accessed June 17, 2015 . 
• Patricia Nell Warren : The Rise and Fall of Gender Testing ( August 19, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) , Outsports.com, 2003
• Michael Eder: Caster Semenya. The third gender. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. October 2, 2009, accessed June 17, 2015 . 

Web links

• Stefan Osterhaus: The gender limits , radio broadcast on DRadio Wissen from August 31, 2011
• Gender Verification No More? - Women's Sports Foundation, January 2001 (English) ( Memento of 3 November 2007 at the Internet Archive )
• Olympics Sex Test: Why the Olympic sex test is outmoded, unnecessary and even harmful - Peak Performance (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Robert Pool: Eve's Rib. Searching for the biological roots of sex differences , Crown Publishers, New York 1994, ISBN 0-517-59298-3
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Patricia Nell Warren : The Rise and Fall of Gender Testing ( Memento of August 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) , Outsports.com, 2003; in the version of August 19, 2006 in the Internet archive
3. ^ Andreas Singler, Gerhard Treutlein: Doping in top sport. Sports science analyzes of national and international performance development . Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89899-192-6 , p. 30
4. ↑ ^{a b} Barbara Klimke: Olympic Games 2000 - The end of the catastrophe. In: Berliner Zeitung . September 14, 2000, accessed June 15, 2015 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Myron Genel: Gender Verification No More? In: Medscape Women's Health 5 (3), 2000. Women's Sports Foundation, January 2001, archived from the original September 1, 2009 ; accessed on May 12, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Katia Mascagni: World conference on women and sport ( PDF file; 696 kB), Olympic Review XXVI No. 12, pp. 23–27, 1996/97 (English; point 10 of the resolution)
7. ↑ Female athletes have to submit a sex test , Handelsblatt.com, August 27, 2002
8. ↑ Cecil Adams: If a man has a sex change, can he compete in the Olympics as a woman? , The Straight Dope, August 22, 2008
9. ↑ Katie Thomas: A Lab is Set to Test the Gender of Some Female Athletes , The New York Times, July 30, 2008 (English)
10. ↑ IAAF Regulations Governing Eligibility of Athletes Who Have Gone Under Sex Reassignment to Compete in Women's Competitions from 1 May 2011 to call on the official website of the IAAF (English)
11. ↑ IAAF defines gender rule , in: Athletics from April 12, 2011, accessed on August 26, 2013
12. ↑ Amended IAAF Rules and new & updated IAAF Regulations - in force as of 1 May 2011 , message on IAAF.org from 1 May 2011, accessed on 26 August 2013 (English / French)
13. ↑ ^{a b} Testosterone debate: IAAF rule remains suspended for a further six months , CAS notification, on: Leichtathletik.de, January 19, 2018, accessed January 20, 2018
14. ↑ ^{a b} Hyperandrogenism: IAAF creates new rule on November 1 , right to start, on: Leichtathletik.de, April 26, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018
15. ↑ Ross Tucker: Hermaphroditism in sport: More on the latest Caster Semenya allegations ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Science of Sport, September 11, 2009 (English)  
16. ↑ María José Martínez-Patiño: Personal Account: A woman tried and tested ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( PDF file; 158 kB), The Lancet Medicine and Sport 366, 2005, p. S38.