A 100-year history of examining female athletes in elite sports

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

This week women’s boxing suddenly started making headlines. The Algerian boxer defeated his Italian opponent, and some on social media cried foul. That’s because the International Boxing Federation last year removed the Algerian boxer from the world championship. They claim that she failed some unspecified test and was not eligible to join the women’s team. If you’re wondering what this is all about, you’re not alone. There is a long but little-known history of gender equality initiatives targeting women in elite sport. And a new podcast series called Tested from NPR’s Embedded and Canada’s CBC explores that history. Host Rose Eveleth takes us back to a time when all elite female athletes faced mandatory exams.

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COPYRIGHT: Today the Summer Sound of Sport visits the eighth British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

ROSE EVELETH, NOTEWORTHY: Carol Martin was 18 when she arrived in Jamaica to compete in the 1966 Commonwealth Games. This was her first international competition.

CAROL MARTIN: And, I mean, believe. That was a bit high. But then again, I didn’t know anything about anything, and I was just having fun, right?

EVELELETH: And he was there to throw the discus.

MARTIN: Let me tell you that you don’t want to choke when you’re throwing the discus because it’s not going anywhere if you’re not serious at all. You have to be free as a goose, fast as a flame, and stronger than, you know, a pitbull.

EVELELETH: But before Carol was allowed to throw a single disc, she had to be checked to make sure she was actually a woman.

MARTIN: I remember we were taken under the seats before the competition in the big room and we had to pull down my pants in front of this woman so she could see my vagina.

EVELELETH: These tests are now known as naked sports or as some of the athletes called them at the time, peeping tests.

MARTIN: I remember thinking, what? [expletive] is this? And I was a good person. I never said it at the time, but I remember thinking, wow, this seems invasive. This seems inappropriate. I mean, can’t you see I’m a girl?

EVELELETH: Every woman who competed as an elite athlete in 1966 and 1967 had to take this test. Those who refused were not allowed to compete. These so-called nudist games were just one of many methods that sports authorities have used over time to try to ensure that female athletes are women. And the reason for those tests changed over time. The main idea related to them was this. Some women did not seem like women to the people in charge of sports. So they needed a way to check.

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EVELELETH: The nude games only lasted two years. Unsurprisingly, they were not very popular. Many athletes since then have spoken about how embarrassing and ugly they were. The governing bodies that ran the games knew that if they insisted on testing everyone to confirm their gender, they would have to come up with another, less invasive method. and more reliable, objective, which cannot be criticized or accused of bias. And they were lucky because science was about to provide what seemed like salvation – genetics.

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WALTER CRONKITE: It has been said that when the history of science in this century is written, the first half will be the study of objects—the automobile, the airplane, the rocket. The second half will be the study of organisms – cells, chromosomes, genes.

EVELELETH: Let’s take a trip to a laboratory in Ontario, Canada, to visit an unlikely medical researcher named Dr. Murray Barr. Dr. Barr studied the science of sex.

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MURRAY BARR: We found that a certain male-only profile was very interesting from a cellular perspective.

EVELELETH: In 1948, Barr discovered. He was looking at cat cells under a microscope, and he happened to notice that in the nucleus of some cells, there was a small, dark spot. As he continued to examine, he realized that the spots corresponded to the sex of the cat. The female cats were spotted. Male cats did not. These small spots became known as Barr bodies.

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EVELELETH: In the 1960s, genetics captured the public’s attention. People were fascinated by the idea that our genes determined everything about us, which is exactly what sports needed—a scientific experiment to know that who really is a woman and who she is.

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EVELELETH: So they turn to Murray Barr’s little spots because those little spots tell you that the cell has two X chromosomes. You only need one. So if you have two X’s, one of them doesn’t work and creates a dark spot in each of your cells. And for sports leaders, it was perfect. All they had to do was collect some cells from the athlete, look at them under a microscope and there it was – the female and the male, neatly arranged in little piles of slides. So in 1967, the governing body of track and field replaced strip parades with Barr’s physical examination.

DEBBIE BRILL: It was just a little classroom, basically, where you’d walk in and there was someone scrubbing their cheeks and lining up the cheek tests.

EVELELETH: That’s Debbie Brill, Canada’s reigning record holder. In 1970, Debbie went to Edinburgh and competed in the Commonwealth Games.

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UNIDENTIFIED: Debbie Brill of Canada, gold medalist in the high jump.

EVELELETH: But before Debbie could win her gold, she had to undergo a sex test.

BRILL: I think every little girl felt anxious about what was going to happen there, you know, because a lot of us were players, and we were athletic, you know? And we were more athletic than all the other girls we knew, so there was concern about what the test would show.

EVELELETH: For Debbie, it was a waste to worry about anything. He passed. And like every woman who passed, she was given a very important document.

BRILL: We have to take a card that says, I’m a woman (laughter).

EVELELETH: These cards were called certificates of femininity.

Yes. And the card – can you explain it to us? How is the card?

BRILL: That’s right. It was a small card, like a business card. Here is my business card. I am a woman. I can do this job.

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EVELELETH: From 1968 to 1999, for over 30 years, every woman who competed in the Olympics in every sport had to have a chromosome test and get a ‘ one of these little cards that confirm that they are women. And they should have brought this card if they wanted to compete. And to end that trend would be a great struggle.

SUMMERS: That was Rose Eveleth, host of Tested, a six-part podcast from NPR’s Embedded and CBC in Canada.

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