Olympics|“The current IOC management has shown that they are not interested in hearing the medical opinion,” says Tommy Lundberg of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
“If someone presents us with a scientifically reliable system for identifying men and women, we’ll be the first to do it,” President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach quoth According to the BBC At the Paris Olympics in August.”
Bach was in an awkward position. of Taiwan Lin Yu-ting and Algerian Imane Khelif won gold medals in the women’s division of the boxing tournament at the Paris Olympics, despite being disqualified from the women’s division at the World Championships last year due to a gender test.
Bach got what he ordered. An international team of thirty-two researchers published a response to Bach’s request in August Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports – publication under the title Fair and safe criteria for the right to participate in women’s sports. One of the authors was a Ph.D Tommy Lundberg from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Has the IOC reacted to the researchers’ presentation?
“No. And we didn’t expect that either,” said Lundberg in an interview with STT last Thursday at the University of Jyväskylä, where he spoke at the Hot Topics in Exercise Physiology seminar.
Imane Khelif won the 66-kilogram boxing Olympic gold in Paris.
The researchers’ proposal is based on four cornerstones.
First, women’s inclusion—women’s participation in elite sports at all—requires the exclusion of male advantages from women’s sports. Secondly, the reason for excluding women from the series cannot be the individual’s current testosterone level, but going through male development or part of it. Third, legal gender or gender identity does not entitle women to enter the series. Fourth, sports must have a means of testing who can participate in the women’s division.
Research group in the presentation published in August, the sex chromosomes of the athletes in the women’s series were determined by swabbing the inner surface of the cheek. Usually men have xy chromosomes and women have xx chromosomes.
The idea of chromosome screening is not new. The IOC did it until the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but at that time it was abandoned for reasons that will be explained later.
According to the proposal of Lundberg and his colleagues, the research should be done well before the athlete is about to participate in prestigious competitions, in order to avoid tearing publicity.
“It is a screening, not a final judgment. The main thing is that the matter needs to be handled outside of the biggest prestigious competitions”, Lundberg emphasized.
If xy chromosomes are found in an athlete aspiring to the women’s series, further studies will be undertaken.
“In cases with Xy chromosomes, further studies must be done to see if they can compete in the women’s series or not. In some countries, such cases may go unnoticed, and it is good to get a diagnosis. Such a reform does not have mere advantages or disadvantages, but for us the advantages are significantly greater than the disadvantages”, Lundberg reasoned.
Tommy Lundberg.
Bridge currently, the situation of gender-based series varies from one genre to another. The reason is the policy published by the IOC in November 2021, according to which an athlete may not be excluded from competitions due to sexual development deviation or transgenderism, unless it can be shown that this leads to an unfair competitive advantage.
“I think we should find out what has happened on the IOC side since Arne Ljunqvist retired as chairman of the IOC Medical Committee (2014). This 2021 policy was an incredibly radical change. In my opinion, they completely ignored the medical side. There is not a single reference to medical or biological research. The current leadership of the IOC has shown that they are not interested in hearing the medical opinion,” said Lundberg.
The IOC put the drafting of the rules on the shoulders of the sports federations. This has led to the current confusion, with different sports having different rules about who can compete in the women’s division.
According to the strictest limitation, only biological women can enter the women’s series. Another limitation is to eliminate from the women’s series all those who have gone through male puberty. The third way is to set a testosterone limit for the women’s series, and the fourth can be based solely on the athlete’s own declaration of their gender.
of Paris at the Olympics, IOC president Thomas Bach also arguedthat it is not scientifically possible to determine who is a woman.
“Scientifically, it is possible to determine who is a woman and who is a man. However, the sports movement does not have to start discussing who is a woman or who can call themselves a woman. But it is the responsibility of the sports movement to set very clear rules about who can compete in the women’s division. Talking like that sounds ignorant to me. It is their duty to draw up clear criteria that are fair,” comments Lundberg.
Thomas Bach took a stand on gender determination.
Lundberg reminded that a protected women’s series is necessary because the differences in physical performance between women and men are significant.
“Gendering sports is the most effective way to maximize inclusion,” Lundberg said.
The question of women’s right to participate in the series is an ancient one.
In the middle of the last century, the athletes of the women’s division were evaluated based on external criteria, and in the most humiliating way, female athletes could have to undress in front of experts.
Starting with the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, sex chromosomes were tested.
Faith in chromosome testing began to waver for a Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patinon because of experiences. Martinez-Patino had forgotten the medical certificate confirming her gender and therefore had to undergo chromosome testing in the summer of 1985 in Kobe, Japan. It was then revealed that Martinez-Patino had xy chromosomes, internal testicles and no ovaries or uterus. Information made public one year.
Finnish researcher Albert de la Chapelle spoke publicly on Martinez-Patino’s behalf. De la Chapelle had studied cases where the development of sex takes place in a different way than the sex chromosome would suggest. Such cases are now called disorder of sexual development (DSD).
It turned out that in addition to DSD, Martinez-Patino had Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). That meant Martinez-Patino’s internal testicles were producing the normal amount of testosterone for a man, but his cells weren’t responding.
After a three-year battle, Martinez-Patino was once again allowed to compete in the women’s division.
The IOC did chromosome tests for the last time in 1996 in Atlanta, and then omitted gender tests altogether.
The reason was the concern that finding xy chromosomes in a female athlete would be stigmatizing and traumatizing. Around the turn of the millennium, there was also a perception that female athletes with xy chromosomes did not have an advantage over women with xx chromosomes.
“There was also no clear plan on how to deal with these xy-chromosomal (women’s division competitors),” Lundberg said.
“Of course, in AIS cases, it can be argued that testosterone is not useful, so the women’s series should be entered. Today, we are much better prepared for these cases,” continued Lundberg.
To the headlines DSD cases came in the sports world for the next time in 2009, when a South African Caster Semenya ran 800m women’s world champion. According to court documents, it is known that Semenya has a gender developmental disorder. She has xy sex chromosomes, internal testes, and male-typical testosterone levels, and no uterus, ovaries, or menstruation.
As a result of Semenya’s case, the International Association of Athletics Federations introduced a testosterone limit of five nanomoles in the 400m to mile races for women with xy sex chromosomes.
Semenya lost her legal battle against the testosterone limit.
The IOC first took a stand on the right of transwomen to participate in the women’s series in 2003. At that time, it was required to undergo genital correction surgery and wait at least two years after that before entering the women’s series.
The surgery requirement was removed in 2015. What remained was the requirement to lower testosterone to less than ten nanomoles per liter for a year.
The rules received little attention in the public, because it is known that the first time a trans woman competed in the Olympics was in Tokyo 2021. She was a New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who before the gender correction had competed in men’s leagues.
Laurel Hubbard in Tokyo.
Lundberg told about a long-term study underway at the Karolinska Institute in Jyväskylä, where the muscle mass and strength of transgender people have been monitored for years. The results have not yet been published, but Lundberg says they are in line with previous research. They have shown that despite lowering testosterone, trans women retain a significant advantage over women who have gone through female puberty.
“This is an uncomfortable truth for sports organizations. They have to prioritize either the inclusion of trans women or fair competition,” said Lundberg.