The Olympic Committee is to reintroduce sex testing" /> The Olympic Committee is to reintroduce sex testing on sportswomen who like they might, in fact, be men. According to The Times, 'suspect athletes' will be evaluated according to their external appearance by experts (experts?!) then undergo four further tests, including blood tests, 'to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes'. All these tests (particularly as The F Word describes them) sound pretty humiliating to say the least, but does raise the question: how can it be so hard to tell?"/>

'Suspicious-looking' females to endure Olympic sex tests

Apparently 'as many as one in 1,000 is born with gender abnormalities' and may not be aware of this until they reach adulthood - which rather suggests there's no obvious physical masculinity about these women. 'Suspicious-looking' implies conscious deception, but from the examples given in the Times article, many of these women don't even know they're not genetically a typical female. Sisterhood aside, for the moment, I understand that a competition needs to be fair. But when we start demanding genetic purity in our sports people, might we be taking our first steps down a slippery slope?

The picture, by the way, is Ewa Klobukowska, the first woman to be 'unmasked as a man' as The Times puts it, in its Scooby Dooish way.

'Suspicious-looking' females to endure Olympic sex tests - Comments

  • Yeah, heh, one would hope that these tests are a last resort, just before they check to see if you're half-woman-half-cheetah or a Hancock-style alien.

    Just noticed The Guardian's picked up on this story too:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jul/30/olympicgames2008.gender

  • tvor

    Surely a woman that appears to have more of a mannish figure ought to be checked for steriods rather than gender?

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