File this under the bizarre and weird. Beijing officials will conduct examinations on athletes whose sex might be in doubt. And apparently this isn’t a new story either.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced sex testing in 1968 at the Olympic games in Mexico City, after the masculine appearance of some competitors, many pumped up by anabolic steroids, had started to raise questions about the gender of athletes in female events. Unsurprisingly, gender-determination tests were seen as degrading, with female competitors having to submit to humiliating and invasive physical examinations by a series of doctors. Later, the IOC decided to use a supposedly more sophisticated genetic test, based on chromosomes. Women usually have two X chromosomes; men an X and a Y chromosome. So, according to the rules of the test, only those athletes with two X chromosomes could be classed as women. However, many geneticists criticised the tests, saying that sex is not as simple as X and Y chromosomes and is not always simple to ascertain.
Transsexuals, who have had a sex change from male to female, can compete in women’s events in the Olympics, as long they wait two years after the operation.
Do the Olympics always produce these weird stories or is it just me? Obviously if someone was born with both male and female organs and chose what gender they wanted to be (and therefore compete against in the Olympics), that’s one thing. But to change your plumbing in order to compete against a certain gender because you think you have a shot to win a gold medal is just flat out incomprehensible. And not too mention creepy.
