Participation of Intersex Athletes in Women's Sports: The Foundation Position

Pictured: South African runner, Caster Semenya competes at the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Semenya's stunning victory in the 800m at the 2009 IAAF Athletics Championships in Berlin caused many to doubt her sex, bringing the issue of participation of intersex athletes into the national spotlight. (Photo by: Getty Images Sport/Stu Forster) Pictured: South African runner, Caster Semenya competes at the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Semenya's stunning victory in the 800m at the 2009 IAAF Athletics Championships in Berlin caused many to doubt her sex, bringing the issue of participation of intersex athletes into the national spotlight. (Photo by: Getty Images Sport/Stu Forster)

Content Summary

As the recent controversy surrounding Caster Semenya’s eligibility for women’s track makes painfully clear, intersex athletes are vulnerable to exclusion from women’s sports, as well as ridicule and invasion of privacy. The Women’s Sports Foundation believes that women with intersex conditions have the same rights to participation in athletics as all women. It is also our position that eligibility standards for women’s sports that require an athlete to demonstrate particular hormone levels promote the policing of gender by medical means, leading to the unwarranted invasions of privacy not only for intersex athletes, but any athlete whose femininity is questioned. Moreover, any policy that singles out women’s sports for eligibility based on hormone levels is discriminatory and sends the harmful message that female athletes are uniquely vulnerable and in need of special protection from the normal, natural variation in size, skill, and athletic ability that exists among members of either sex.

Participation of Intersex Athletes in Women's Sports (PDF 645k)

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Published Sep 20, 2011
By Women's Sports Foundation

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