Agony of the unfairer sex05 Aug, 2012 03:00 AM
Staff, Cooma Monaro Express
http://www.coomaexpress.com.au/news/national/national/sport/agony-of-the-unfairer-sex/2643708.aspx#Shot dead in an armed robbery gone wrong in Ohio, it wasn't until a Cleveland coroner did an autopsy on 69-year-old Stella Walsh that it was discovered the women's Olympic gold medallist was in fact a hermaphrodite.
As it turns out, the Olympic Games has a long, complicated and occasionally sordid history of hermaphrodite, transgender and even transsexual athletes, if accusations against 1936 German high jumper Dora Ratjen are to believed.
Most recently, the cases of South African runner Caster Semenya and American hammer-thrower Keelin Godsey have cast the spotlight back on Olympic gender qualification. So far have such athletes pushed the boundaries of Olympic qualification that - rightly or wrongly - after the 2012 London Games the IOC is expected to ban women with naturally high testosterone levels from competing.
Semenya identifies as a woman and Godsey as a man, although Semenya has male and female organs and Godsey was born female. Both will compete in women's events. They have the Y chromosome, which produces testosterone and in turn creates larger muscle mass and strength - like a man.
Sex tests for ''maleness'' were introduced to world competition in 1966 and the Mexico Olympics in 1968, and this is the story of the athletes who inspired it.
