The International Olympic Committee recommended creating rules for athletes who have ambiguous sexual characteristics to determine their eligibility to compete on a case-by-case basis after closed meetings Sunday and Monday. The committee also wants to establish special medical committees to evaluate athletes whose gender is called into question, according to an Associated Press report.
Athletes with ambiguous sexual characteristics should be allowed to compete with the gender they associate with most.
The Associated Press report did not say who decides if an athlete has ambiguous sexual characteristics and if anyone, including competitors, can call someone”s gender into question.
It would not be fair if athletes and their coaches or trainers could point at male competitors with pretty faces or female contestants with muscular bodies and interrupt their training to send them off to a special medical center.
So far it”s unclear if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) plans to screen thousands of participants and who would pay for the examination, transportation and costs.
I would guess that many Olympic athletes have ambiguous sexual characteristics, especially women who need muscles stronger than the average woman to be competitive.
Certain male ice skaters, fencers, jockeys and athletes from other sports have female characteristics, but that doesn”t mean they have female genes or that they shouldn”t be allowed to play with men.
Off the Deep End — Let them be Olympians
Hundreds of female basketball players, runners, hockey players and more may be a bit beefy and muscular but they may have just trained enough to be strong. Even if they have some male chromosomes, their gender may be female.
The issue of sex verification gained global attention last year when South African runner Caster Semenya was ordered to undergo gender tests, according to the Associated Press. She won the women”s 800 meters in August at the World Championships in Berlin. Her dramatic improvement in times and muscular build led the International Association of Athletics Federations to order gender tests, which are still being reviewed to determine her eligibility. The association has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that the tests indicate Semenya has both male and female sex organs.
“We did not discuss any particular case,” IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press. “We explored the science of all these matters. We established several important points based on up-to-date science and global expertise. Now we have the scientific basis for going further.”
If Semenya has both male and female sex organs or chromosomes she should be given the chance to compete.
Here”s a lesson in human genes from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
“Humans have 46 chromosomes. Chromosomes contain all of your genes and DNA, the building blocks of the body. Two of these chromosomes, the sex chromosomes, determine if you become a boy or a girl. Females normally have two of the same sex chromosomes, written as XX. Males have an X and a Y chromosome, written as XY.”
People with intersex conditions, formerly known as hermaphroditism, have a discrepancy between external and internal genitals, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Some people have female chromosomes but external genitalia that appear male. Some have male chromosomes but genitalia that appears female. And some people have both ovarian and testicular tissue and may have one or both male and female chromosomes. There are also a number of complex and undetermined intersex disorders.
The Olympic committee used to have mandatory gender exams at the Olympics, but they were dropped in 1999 because the screening process – chromosome testing – was deemed unscientific and unethical, the Associated Press reported.
It”s not the athletes” fault that they have mismatched chromosomes and genitalia.
I wouldn”t advocate that men with male chromosomes and genitalia should be allowed to compete with women because they associate mentally more with women and vise versa.
But people with intersex disorders shouldn”t be prevented from competing with the sex they associate most with, nor should they be forced into hormone treatment.
The International Olympic Committee concluded to set up health centers where experts would diagnose and treat athletes with what are known as “disorders of sex development,” according to the Associated Press report. Most cases, Ljungqvist said, require treatment such as surgery or hormone therapy.
Surgery and hormone treatment seem like they may impede an athlete”s chance to play. And why should they be forced to modify their gender? They shouldn”t.
Activists, advertisers and athletes should advocate to allow sexually ambiguous players a chance to be Olympians.
Katy Sweeny is a staff reporter for the Record-Bee. She can be reached at ksweeny@record-bee.com or at 263-5636, ext. 37.
