Here are six high-profile women athletes who were questioned, mocked by media and banned from competing until they raised their voices against such rules.
All are not born the same and when it comes to female athletes, their strength and abilities differ from person to person.
However, some female runners with naturally high testosterone levels had to undergo gender tests as they were not ‘female enough'.
In 1966, international sports officials decided they shouldn’t trust nations to certify femininity. They implemented a genital check of every woman competing at international games. In some cases, this involved the 'nude parade' as well.
Amid complaints about the genital checks, the IAAF and the IOC introduced a new 'gender verification' strategy in the late 60s: a chromosome test.
Recently the IAFF in a statement said that it is "not classifying" any athlete with "differences of sexual development" (DSD) as male. "To the contrary, we accept their legal sex without question, and permit them to compete in the female category".
"However, if a DSD athlete has testes and male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in hemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women.
"Therefore, to preserve fair competition in the female category, it is necessary to require DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before they compete at international level."
Here are six high-profile women athletes who were questioned, mocked by media and banned from competing until they raised their voices against such rules.
1. Stella Walsh and Helen Stephens
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Born in Poland and immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Stella Walsh (or Stanisława Walasiewicz, in Polish) had set a world record in the 100-meter dash in 1930. In 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, competing on the Polish team, Walsh won the gold medal.
But when she competed again in 1936, she was narrowly beaten by an 18-year old sprinter from Missouri, Helen Stephens.
Both women were whispered about because of their athletic build, and after Stephens’ victory, she was publicly accused by the Polish media of being a man.
Stephens underwent the first genital inspections conducted by the Olympic committee to verify that her anatomy was “female,” defined as having a vagina, clitoris, and pubic hair, among other measures.
As of Walsh, forty years later, after she was unexpectedly shot and killed in an Ohio parking lot, an autopsy revealed that she had ambiguous genitalia.
(Image: John Skrtic Twitter and The State Historical Society of Missouri)
2. Ewa Klobukowska
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Poland athlete Ewa Klobukowska competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics at the height of the Cold War. She helped set a world record while running in the 100-meter relay and won a gold medal.
However, after the media wrote about her masculine appearance, Klobukowska was tested with the IAAF’s new chromosome test in 1967.
These tests were viewed as a 'simpler, objective, and more dignified' alternative to the physical examinations.
The test results were never made public, but the IAAF ruled that Klobukowska had a chromosomal anomaly that disqualified her from competing in the female category.
Publicly criticized for being a male imposter, Klobukowska was stripped off her medals.
After the incident, she said, “It’s a dirty and stupid thing to do to me. I know what I am and how I feel."
Klobukowska had a son in 1968 and thirty-one years later, the IOC returned her medals.
(Image: File Photo)
3. Maria Jose Martinez-Patino
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Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patino was forced to take the chromosome test ahead of a major competition that would have qualified her for the Olympics in 1986.
The test revealed that, unlike most women, she carried a Y chromosome. (Although women typically have XX chromosomes and men typically have XY, scientists are finding that many variations exist.)
One of her team doctors even suggested her to fake an injury so that she could quietly sit out the race, but Martinez-Patino refused and went on to win the first place.
Her test results were leaked to the press and her running timings were erased and she was kicked out the Spanish team.
“I felt ashamed and embarrassed,” Martinez-Patino wrote in a 2005 account of her sex testing in the medical journal The Lancet.
She was declared ineligible to compete as a woman for the Olympic games in the 1988 Seoul. But she fought the chromosome rule and was eventually allowed to compete in the qualifying trials for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
She, however, missed the mark by ten-hundredths of a second and didn’t make it to the Games.
Martinez-Patino is now a professor of science education in sports at the University of Vigo in Spain.
(Image: Twitter)
4. Santhi Soundarajan
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Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan ran in the 800-meter race at the Asian Games in Qatar in 2006.
The 25-year-old who was competing against athletes from 45 countries won a silver medal.
However, the next day, Soundarajan was called in for a blood test and asked her to undress.
It was later announced on Indian television that Soundarajan had been stripped of her medal because she had failed a sex test.
Just like Martinez-Patino, Soundarajan carried a Y chromosome and had female genitalia.
Soundarajan was publicly shamed as a gender imposter and struggling with depression, she attempted suicide shortly after returning to India.
(Image: AFP)
5. Caster Semenya
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In 2009, South African athlete Caster Semenya broke the 800-meter world record at the African junior championships. Many athletes started questioning her physique.
IAAF asked her to complete a gender test and her results were leaked to the press. Although she had a vagina, she didn’t have ovaries or a uterus, and her body produced three times the testosterone as the average woman.
She luckily had the support of the South African government who filed an official complaint with the UN arguing that disqualifying Semenya was the result of sexism and racism in the sports federations.
On July 6, 2010, the IAAF confirmed that Semenya was clear to continue competing as a woman.
Semenya is again in the news as the Court of Arbitration for Sport is due to hear her landmark case next week.
However, the news doing the rounds was that of IAFF wanting Semenya to be classified as a biological male.
IAFF have rejected the claims and are awaiting the court hearing to bring change to the gender test rules.
According to their rules, women athletes in track events from 400m up to the mile would require to keep their testosterone levels below a prescribed amount "for at least six months prior to competing".
(Image: AFP)
6. Dutee Chand
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In 2014, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand had become a national champion in the 200-meter race and was preparing for her first international competition at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
After several athletes complained about her physique, doctors from the Athletic Federation of India required her to submit to a blood testosterone test. According to Chand, they told her it was a routine doping test.
She complained against the governing body saying that the doctors tested not only her testosterone levels, but made her get an ultrasound, a chromosome analysis, an MRI, and a physical examination that included measuring and palpitating her clitoris, vagina, and labia, as well as inspecting her breast size and pubic hair.
A few days later, she was told she could not compete because her “male hormone levels” were too high.
Chand decided to fight against the rule and went against the idea of undergoing the invasive surgery or hormone therapy which needed to lower her testosterone levels.
“I want to remain who I am and compete again. I have lived my life as a girl,” Chand told the Indian Express in 2014.
In a landmark victory, Chand won her case last July. She competes in 100m and 200m while the new rule of IAFF cover races from 400m to the mile, including 400m, hurdles races, 800m, 1500m, one-mile races and combined events over the same distances.
(Image: AFP)
