If you read through the extensive explanation with which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) justified last week its decision to reintroduce compulsory gender tests for women, you get the impression that the IOC has merely carried out the will of all the people to whom sport matters. “The guideline was developed with an athlete-centered approach that places human dignity, physical and mental health and well-being as well as the safety of female and male athletes at the forefront,” it says there. The IOC’s sole aim is to “provide men and women with equal access to elite sport.”
That is indeed the justification for demanding a “femininity certificate” from women who want to pursue elite sport.
But the reactions are not so unequivocal. Payoshni Mitra of the US NGO “Humans of Sport” attests that the IOC decision is not about respect. “It fuels mistrust, invites public criticism and endangers already vulnerable athletes,” she told the New York Times. “This brutal language does not protect sport – it controls the bodies of women.”
I will encourage female athletes to put an end to this nonsense
Caster Semenya
That same newspaper also interviewed Eric Vilain, a human geneticist at the University of California and IOC adviser on these questions until 2017. “I would have no problem if they said; we are a private organization and want to exclude transgender and DSD athletes, and anyone who disagrees can form a new federation, but they are looking for excuses to justify it.” Unlike the IOC’s claim, the scientific assessment on these questions is “not at all clear,” Vilain said.
Caster Semenya Calls for Boycott
Sharp criticism comes from South African Olympic champion Caster Semenya. She belongs to what seem to be two groups of women whom the IOC will bar from competing in the Olympic Games in the future. In addition to transgender athletes, the exclusion also applies to women with so-called DSD, Disorders of Sexual Development, translated: disorders of sexual development. This is a diagnosis that is commonly applied to Semenya, the best 800-metre runner of the 2010s.
At the World Championships in 2022, her start over the middle distances was banned by the World Athletics Federation; only the start over 5,000 metres was permitted. She urges athletes to resist the demanded gender test. “I will encourage them to do so to put an end to this nonsense,” Semenya told Sky Sport News.
The 35-year-old, who now works as a coach, had sued before the European Court of Human Rights. The court, after a previous ruling to the contrary, found that Semenya had not been discriminated against, but also had not received a fair procedure. She received damages of 80,000 euros.
The British organization “DSDfamilies” complains that the IOC decision has nothing to do with current standards of DSD care, but rather “could cause foreseeable and avoidable harm to this vulnerable minority,” a spokesperson told the Guardian. “We are concerned that the proposed procedures do not always show the level of understanding, dignity, and respect that this topic requires.”
Medical Tests Are Not Medically Conclusive
Medical and biologically guided critique points out that the tests with which the IOC intends to detect the SRY gene – “Sex-Determining Region Y” – in female athletes are by no means safe or clear. And furthermore the so-called “male advantage,” allegedly exceeding 100 percent in some disciplines, has not been scientifically proven. “There is no convincing direct evidence that athletes with DSD have advantages in sport. The few available pieces of evidence are of very low quality,” says Alun Williams, Professor of Sports and Movement Genomics in Manchester.
When it comes to transgender athletes, genetic tests are unnecessary. “A combination of documents such as the gender registered at birth, statements from people who knew the athletes in childhood, and interviews with the athletes themselves would reliably identify them,” Williams adds.
In his statement on the Science Media Centre platform, Williams also points to ethical problems. “For example, athletes are forced to participate in the genetic tests, since the only alternative is to end their sports career forever.” Moreover, the tests could reveal information that is “potentially life-changing,” indeed for some families also “devastating.”
