I guess that’s the question we’re all asking! One would assume that anything coming under the umbrella of the Olympic logo and/or brand is required to follow governance as directed by the parent organisation. National Olympic organisations would then be required to follow the same rules and procedures set forth by the IOC of course. As we have since learnt that the IOC still carries out sex testing, the OCA was in fact merely following IOC procedures. Although the IOC announced it would stop sex testing, it has maintained the ‘right’ to test any athlete upon reasonable suspicion.
Published – October 2007
Hindustan Times – Full Article
Monthly Archive for April, 2009
John Hopkin’s University – Punishing difference
Express Buzz Magazine – January 24, 2009
Vaibhav Saria
Tamil athlete Santhi Soundararajan attempted suicide in September 2007 in Pudukottai by consuming dangerous amounts of a veterinary drug. She was driven to take her own life because, in 2006, after winning the silver in the women’s 800m race at the Asian Games, she was stripped of her medal, her accolades, and her job (she had earlier that year won the gold in the 1,500m and the silver in the 800m at the South Asian Games in Colombo) and subjected to humiliation and governmental indifference. This is because a test ostensibly revealed that she was biologically intersexed. (which means that while the male has XY chromosomes and the female has XX chromosomes, there are instances when a person might have an XXY chromosome as well, hence, intersex, somewhere between the two sexes). Furthermore, I should just mention at the outset, that having this extra chromosome doesn’t necessary mean that you have external physical manifestations of both the sexes. Hence, let us straightaway clear Santhi of any intentional deception. The way media represented the case didn’t help either; calling it “the sad story of” or “the mysterious case” or “the strange case of” Santhi Soundararajan instead of looking at what assumptions of gender and sex were problematically being made by the federation. Instead of raising a ruckus — the reports were relishing the sensation of the ‘freak’ and had hideous and offensive headlines like ‘Santhi runs like a man, but cries like a woman.’ The Olympic Council of Asia assumes that there are two genders and two sexes (the International Olympic Committee does not do gender tests), but also that these genders and these sexes have something universally definitive about them. There is a plethora of genders out there — male, female, intersex, hijra, transsexual, transgender, male-to-female transsexuals (MTF), female-to-male transsexuals (FTM): should they not be given the chance to become sportspeople? There are a lot of sexes as well: the male sex (XY chromosomes), the female sex (XX chromosomes), the Turner Syndrome (XO chromosomes), the Triple xxx Syndrome (XXX chromosomes), the Klinefelter syndrome (XXY), XYY syndrome, XX male syndrome, Swyer syndrome (XY female). And I have just hit the three chromosomes list — the list is longer if you look at anomalies with four chromosomes. And none of these “deviations” necessarily imply any physical manifestations, deformities or incapacities. The point is that there are not just two sexes. The intersexed condition, with which Santhi was ostensibly diagnosed, itself has five variations. People are born with both or neither of the male and female gonads. Further, the stage of development of either results in more combinations, which ultimately makes it impossible to determine clearly whether you fall into the male or the female category. The ambiguity in the reports about Santhi in the Indian media shows this ignorance. References to her ambiguous sex organs, to her anatomy not matching her chromosomes, to her characteristics of a woman and the internal sex organs of a man. If this is Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), she is not a man because her body does not respond to testosterone she is producing, but there is no space, at the end of the day, for an XY female athlete.
Continue reading ‘John Hopkin’s University – Punishing difference’
Whitten won the second event to take the lead, and went into the final event tied with Tomic on points after a poor showing in the fourth event. In the final 500 metre time trial Whitten finished eighth and Tomic seventh, to give the Australian the win by one point. Whitten is in only her second year of international competition, having switched from cross country skiing.
“I was just trying to remind myself to put it all out there for the 500,” Whitten explained. “I didn’t know what I could do really, so I just reminded myself to go as hard as I could. It’s hard because it’s so close [to gold], but I can’t be disappointed. I’m proud with the way I was able to refocus after the [fourth] race, when I lost my lead, and I know that now it is just a matter of fine tuning my skills for the future.”
Canadian Cycling Association Press Release
Published March 28th, 2009
