http://www.headlinesindia.com/detail.jsp?news_code=20220

Santhi fails gender test in Asian games
 
Santhi Soundarajan

New Delhi: Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan, who bagged silver medal in the 800m race in Doha Asian Games is likely to be stripped of her medal as she reportedly did not have the ‘sexual characteristics of a woman’. Reports said that Shanthi was picked up for a ‘test’ at the Games, after a fellow athlete ‘doubted her of being a woman’ and lodged a complaint. However, the Indian contingent list shows Santhi as a female and her profile reveals that she was born on April 17, 1981. She weighs 54 kg and her height is 161 cm. A resident of Puoukkottai in Tamil Nadu, Santhi picked up the silver medal clocking 2 minutes, 3.16 seconds beating Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Yalovtseva. Bahrain’s Mariam Yusuf Jamal had bagged gold in the race.
Santhi’s failing the gender test came close on the heels of Doha-bound discus thrower Seema Antil reportedly testing positive in a dope test at a preparatory camp in Muscat a few days before the Asian Games. An Indian official, who was part of the contingent in Doha, said Santhi was sent back home two-three days before the closing ceremony of the Games and questions were raised at the Games village why she returned prematurely.

A highly placed source in the Athletics Federation of India said that Santhi had undergone a similar test before her departure to Doha but was cleared. “The Sports Authority of India conducted various tests on all Doha-bound athletes, including Santhi. The tests were all clear,” the AFI official said.

The official also said Santhi had cleared gender tests during the Asian Athletics Championships in Inch eon, South Korea, where she won the 800m silver and the senior nationals in 2005. Hailing from a poor family, Santhi stole the limelight winning the silver in the women’s 800 metres race.

The athlete is to be honoured by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at his residence in Chennai on Monday along with three other Games medal winners—Anju Bobby George, K Sasikiran and Sourav Ghosal.

But now following reports that the Doha Asian Games Committee was likely to strip Santhi of the medal, a question mark has arisen whether she would be presented the cash award on Sunday. Tamil Nadu Sports and Youth Services Secretary G Rajkumar said that the government had not received any communication about the reported stripping of Santhi’s medal. He said Santhi had won medal during the SAF Games also and no controversy had arisen then.(PTI)

I’m very curious in what way he/she failed the tests.  Does she have boy parts, or is she maybe an XXY chromosome person?  If the latter, I think there’s room for debate.

In the article I read, I think it said she examined by a gynecologist (or some type of M.D.) and a psychologist.  The psychologist puzzles me. Can you get disqualified if you are completely physically female, but have gender identity issues psychologically (what we used to call a tom boy)?

I was wondering the exact same thing Joe. And if she IS technically and physically intersex, what then?

Disqualification on “tomboy” grounds wouldn’t be fair at all. It would probably also disqualify 99.9% of female athletes

I’d seen this news a few days ago and considered posting it here, but I was too confused about it to do so.  I couldn’t really tell what it was saying.  What is a “gender test”, how is it conducted, and what does it mean?  And how could she (or he?) pass a gender test one time and then fail it another?  It’s still not very clear.

I know that laws defining sex vary from nation to nation, but I would have thought international sports committees would have rules in place dealing with hermaphroditism and the like.  I guess there are certain cases where a slight fudging one way or the other can make all the difference in the world, and that might be what happened here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061218/ap_on_sp_ot/run_failed_gender_test

“An Indian athletics official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said Soundarajan almost certainly never had sex-change surgery.

“Instead, the official said Soundarajan appeared to have “abnormal chromosomes.” The official also said the test revealed more Y chromosomes than allowed.”

It would be interesting, I agree, to see the evaluation of such tests on ALL athletes and I believe as has been mentioned, that as far as female athletes are concerned, there may be more than just a few who would be disqualified.

While this sounds odd it’s actually rather ‘normal’ for the world of sports.  Since men are, on average, better performers than women at most sports it’s only natural to ensure that the competitors actually are women.  The uncertainty comes from the fact that exactly how you define ‘women’ and ‘men’ varies from place to place, and it’s not necessarily always dependant on physical characteristics.  Many people are born with too many chromosomes, making the issue of male vs female a very muddy one.  While in every day life people are generally allowed to pick whatever sex they are more comfortable with (particularly when dealing with hermaphroditism), the fact that an extra Y chromosome might give the competitor an undue advantage can’t be ignored.

hulitoons - 19 December 2006 05:43 AM

Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan, who bagged silver medal in the 800m race in Doha Asian Games is likely to be stripped of her medal as she reportedly did not have the ‘sexual characteristics of a woman’.

My guess?  The condom didn’t fit and kept slipping off so “he” figured the women’s race was the right one!