Chromosome Count: Who Gets to Decide Which Athletes Are 'Feminine Enough' to Compete?

(A lengthy, extremely informative, absolutely infuriating, read)


Chromosome Count: Who Gets to Decide Which Athletes Are ‘Feminine Enough’ to Compete?
PUBLISHED 8/12/2024 by Alison Carlson



Imane Khelif of Algeria wins the gold medal after defeating Liu Yang of China on day 14 of the Olympic Games on Aug. 9, 2024, in Paris. (Aytac Unal / Anadolu via Getty Images)

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif made headlines after a match with Italian boxer Angela Carini, during which Carini dropped out after just 46 seconds, declaring that she’d “never felt a punch like this.” A subsequent right-wing media firestorm, spurred by prominent online figures, spread disinformation that Khelif was transgender, and was further fueled by the news that she had previously failed a gender eligibility test (the test’s legitimacy has also been called into question). Khelif went on to win gold for her weight class.

As the article below from the October 1988 issue of Ms. reminds us, sex testing in women’s sports is nothing new—and its origins are blatantly unscientific. In the 21st century, as conservatives increasingly use rhetoric of “fairness” to try to prevent trans women and girls from competing in sports—all while neglecting actual supports for gender equality in sports like Title IX—it’s worth interrogating the motivations behind these tests, which more often than not end up singling out Black women (and categorically exclude trans people from the world of professional sports). Why are women like Khelif harassed and invasively tested, while men like Michael Phelps—with his abnormal wingspan and extraordinarily low lactic acid levels—are celebrated?


Chromosome Count

From the October 1988 issue of Ms. magazine:
(Illustration by Ron Ridgeway)



. . . .

Since 1968, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been screening the chromosomes of all women competitors “to insure femininity in the competitors” and “establish equality among athletes.” Passing the test, which is called the buccal smear, has nothing to do with the way a woman looks, her birth records or her sense of self. Getting “certified feminine” depends on the results of a microscopic analysis of cells scraped from inside the athlete’s cheek to determine the pattern of her sex chromosomes. Normally, the female pattern is XX and the male is XY. But that is not always the case. And when an abnormality appears, the athlete is subjected a battery of gynecological and clinical exams to decide whether she is “feminine” enough to compete. So far, it is estimated that a dozen women have been disqualified from Olympic competition.Those numbers don’t begin to tell the chilling story of what’s happening to young girls who are being pre-tested today at lower levels of competition, or of the inaccuracies in the test itself and the flawed assumptions about the very nature of sexuality or the narrow definitions of femininity that its use is based upon. Neither do they reflect the havoc it wreaks in the lives of those who do not pass, or the stress the test imposes on female athletes on the eve of their competition.
. . . ..


Ewa Kłobukowska in 1964. (Picryl / Creative Commons)

. . . . .,


Dr. de la Chapelle, although a member of that group is somewhat skeptical. “For so long, I have asked the IOC to reassess their policy, and every four years they tell me, ‘Let us just get through those next Games, and then we will look into it.’ I know the IOC means no harm, but their policy is misguided.” One of the suggestions sure to be made will be to replace the chromosome test with a simple physical exam by female doctors. Another might be the introduction of a hormone test for allowable testosterone limits, but that is fraught with the same technical and ethical inconsistencies engendered by chromosome testing. A post-competition “appeal system” for cases where there’s controversy has also been proposed. But the resulting publicity could potentially damage an unwitting athlete’s psyche and reputation. Some just want to see testing dropped altogether. Whatever is decided the people the IOC claims it is trying to protect should be included in a discussion. ****** To date, there has been no indication that women athletes have ever been asked.******

Editor’s note: The original version of this article from 1988 used the term “hermaphrodite,” a term that is outdated and should be avoided. Instead, we replaced it with the term “intersex” or “intersex people” to describe people born with genitalia or chromosomes that don’t fit typical definitions for males or females.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/08/12/women-athletes-sex-change-trans-olympics-imane-khelif-intersex/