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JAHR Vol. 2 No. 3 2011
UDK: 176:34:17:796/799(045)
Review Article/Pregledni članak
Received/Primljeno 29/11/2010
Dragan Kinkela*, Viktor Moretti**, Veno Đonlić***
Moral and legal dilemmas regarding
determining sex in sport
ABSTRACT
e aim of this paper is to present an issue that still creates a moral dilemma in determining
sex. It includes some anthropological di erences of men and women, the problem of ensur-
ing fairness of competition and on the other side the right of preserving privacy, which is an
inalienable human right. e paper cites the meaning of a sex and gender identity and the
examples and consequences of not specifying the assessment and determination of the sex
and the opens the polemics about the e ects of media pressure on unproven assumptions
regarding the sports results.
Key words: sex, anthropological di erences, sex, gender, sexual identity, media, law.
Introduction
Social phenomenon of sport, which is today omnipresent, has at its beginning been
a privilege of males, and in the process of gaining equality it has been adapting and
is now divided into a male and female sport.
is is the source of misapprehensions which generate a problem and require a more
thorough approach in determining sex.
* Correspondence address: Dragan Kinkela, B.A., University of Rijeka, Faculty of Teacher Education, Depart-
ment of Kinesiology, Slavka Krautzeka bb, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia, e-mail: dragan.kinkela@ufri.hr.
** University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, Rijeka.
*** University of Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department for Physical and Health Cul-
ture, Rijeka.
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Biological de nition of sex and sex boundaries
In nature there are three possible categories which participate in biological repro-
duction. ere are two basic sexes, male and female with separated reproductive
roles and hermaphroditic with the ability of self-reproduction. ere is a way of re-
production called asexual (cell division and cloning which may be natural – plant,
bacteria… and unnatural – human in uence – cloning) but not in human.
Nowadays, sex can be changed through hormonal therapy and surgery. However,
the genetic di erence remains (male has a Y chromosome) and this is what sexual
identity is related to.
ere is also a category of socially constructed sex, which is called gender. We can
de ne SEX as the totality of physiological and psychological characteristics which
di er male from female among individuals within the same species.
GENDER is the individual construct of personal identity, expression which con-
rms, negates and surpasses socially given and formed sex and gender roles of men
and women, as well as the whole bipolar basis of male and female. Related to this
are identities related to sex and gender.
Sexual identity implies personal sexual self-image which is not necessarily depen-
dent on sex de ned by birth. Sexual identities include a woman, a man, a transsexu-
al person, and intersexual person, as well as identifying according to sex.
Gender identity replies personal gender self-image, not necessarily related to sex at-
tributed at birth, and these include, female, male, transgender and identifying ac-
cording to gender.
e reality imposes some other non-de ned categories which do not belong to the
eld of already stated biological divisions, but are products of biological and social
anomalies (degeneration). ey are a part of our everyday life which we should, in
the context of basic human rights and freedoms, accept as normal. Reality also im-
poses a di erent dimension as a justi ed counter-balance, intolerant, selective di-
mension, dimension of instinctive behavior. Instinct makes us reject any anomalies
which disturb the evolutionary rule of the selection of "the best", "the strongest",
"healthy", "clean" and "right" genetic code and isolation of something that does not
belong into that category.
Dragan Kinkela, Viktor Moretti, Veno Đonlić: Moral and legal dilemmas regarding determining...
113
Some speci c di erences between males and females
Sport is still divided only into men and women sports, but not according to gender.
Important morphological and functional di erences between men and women are
genetically preconditioned. e structure of female chromosome is of xx type, and
male xy. Depending on the type of chromosome, the bigger or smaller amount of
female and male chromosomes discharge, which de nes secondary characteristics of
the sex, as well as the built and functional abilities of the organism. Anthropological
di erences between women and men are an objective factor which justi es the divi-
sion on the basis of sex which seriously in uences the nal result in sport in which
most women have incomparably worse results.
Anthropological and bio-psychological di erences:
• Women are in average 13 cm shorter and 16 kg lighter than men (Wilmore
and Costill, 1997)
• Ratio of longitudinal dimensionality of torso to legs is greater, shoulders are
narrower and less developed, hips are wider (Medved, 1987)
• Lumbal lordosis more frequently occurs on women's vertebra
• Women are more exible
• Muscles are less developed in women and they consist of 33%, and 40% at
men.
• Maximum oxygen intake is 8-12 % less for women (Wilmore and Costill,
1997).
• While menstruating, the amount of iron in blood serum reduces.
• When women undertake long term activities they oxidize more lipids, and less
carbohydrates (Tarnopolsky, 2000)
• Men show a greater level of extrinsic motivation, while women show a greater
level of intrinsic motivation. (Johansson and Nordenhall, 1988).
Di erences between motor and functional abilities:
• Research of the e ects of physical exercise on a female organism has removed
any doubts on harmful e ect of physical activities on the reproductive and
other organs.
• When testing the strength, women fall quite behind men in results, particu-
larly regarding the upper body strength (relative in ratio to their weight, wom-
en have shown 46% less strength in bench press, 92% in leg press, and 65% in
snatches):
• In sports requiring aerobic endurance, the increase in results for women is evi-
dent. is is in favor of the presumption that in the future the time needed for
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the same distance to be run will be equal for both men and women (Drinkwatwr,
2000). Surveys carried out on ultra marathon runners con rm this hypothesis.
• Studying of equally trained men and women has established that when it
comes to distances which are greater than 42.2 km, the di erence between
sexes becomes irrelevant, and when it comes to distances greater than 70km or
90km, women might achieve better results than men.
ese di erences create a series of dilemmas, one of which regards the determina-
tion of sex
Sex determination
e Olympic Games have strongly in uenced the development of the results quali-
ty, as well as the medical protection of the athletes. Sports medicine with the aim of
protecting athletes health faced new problems after the WW2, and those included
sex determination and taking stimulant substances. Sex determination, at rst
glance a routine procedure, faced the unpredictable and complicated problems at
the European Athletic Championship (Oslo, 1964), which are still present. Two
"women athletes" declared, after winning medals, that they were, in fact, men. For
organizers this was an unplanned oversight and a asco. is resulted in measures
which prohibited males to compete in women's categories. e rst method of sex
veri cation was the introduction of a gynecological exam, and later a method of
microscopic mouth lining scrapings. Today, methods of genetic testing, testing for
the presence of unnatural amount of hormones of the other sex, etc. are used, but
the anomalies of chromosomes can mislead and provide wrong results.
Dilemma when determining sex, primarily with women, has always presented a prob-
lem at sports competition. Although this occurs rarely and is registered and presents
problem mostly at the highest level competitions, it still severely disrupts moral di-
mension in sport. e problem is triggered at the moment when the defeated individ-
ual or a team suspects the honorable victory and warns about the authenticity of the
sex based on looks (butch), moves, deep voice, above-averagely suspicious result.
Pressure to expose women in some sports to sex determination tests and in this way
set a regulation, comes from women athletes who have been defeated, and believe
their defeat to have been dishonorable and unequal precisely because of those
doubts. By implementing control and sex determination, many women athletes
withdraw from the competition before it even starts, some whose sex was ques-
tioned have later become mothers. As opposed to males, females are during the sex
determination forced to undergo unpleasant, insulting and vulnerable tests.
Dragan Kinkela, Viktor Moretti, Veno Đonlić: Moral and legal dilemmas regarding determining...
115
Frauds and moral sides
Human beings have in their nature a series of inborn conscious and unconscious
instinctive systems which ensure the survival and reproduction. So, they are contin-
ually, more or less, in some kind of a con ict with the possible competition so it is
unavoidable that throughout life they have to, either physically or mentally, con-
front – ght. Sooner or later they are forced to be exposed to confrontation regard-
less of the result, with the aim of self-protection, or even better, victory. If a human
being is in a position in which his or her possible defeat would signify the end of his
or her survival he or she is justi ably forced to select any means which justify the
survival, as the basic life goal, of himself as an individual or his group. He or she can
achieve this as an individual, but also as a smaller, bigger or ideologically big group
– e.g. region, nation, country.
A person has reached, as a social being, his civilized state by establishing certain so-
cial norms based on his or her attempts to survive, which has in everyday life been
regulated by a legal system. Nevertheless, a legal system, which is not inviolable nei-
ther always just, is not always able to have all the survival relations under control.
On the contrary, it is becoming more and more di cult and complicated.
Unfortunately, in the world of sport, due to di culties which may come up while
determining sex boundaries, frauds and injustice which disturb and degrade basic
ethical principles and generate injustice and frustration have appeared. e prob-
lems of sex determination is obviously quite a complicated procedure, particularly
when it surpasses boundaries of medical sex determination, and when it is reduced
to egos of particular interest groups through media and wider public. One of the
reasons are sports organizations, i.e. professional federations, which have never spec-
i ed when a women becomes a man and the other way around.
Although this occurs rarely and is registered and presents problem mostly at the
highest level competitions, it still severely disrupts moral dimension in sport. Natu-
rally, being a man and present oneself as a woman in order to win, constitutes a
fraud, impersonation. is leads to possibilities of new frauds which would shake
the grounds of seemingly established system of ethics in sport. e problem is trig-
gered at the moment when the defeated individual or a team suspects the honorable
victory and warns about the authenticity of the sex based on looks (butch), moves,
deep voice, above-averagely suspicious result.
e history of sport states a series of intentional or unintentional cases in which
women athletes' results were disputed because of the suspicions regarding their fe-
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male sex. e following six examples will give the breadth and possibility of frauds
but also wrong judgments regarding sex determination.
Example 1. (Jolanda Balaš and Fanny Blankers-Koen)
ese women athletes who were winning convincingly, were under strong suspicion
regarding their sex. At the end of their careers, they became pregnant and mothers.
is is the example of unsuccessful misleading based on exceptional results and sus-
picious appearance.
Example 2. (Stanislawa Walaslewicz)
is winner at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles at the 100m race was a
con rmed male, which was accidently discovered during the autopsy after her tragic
death in 1980. e Athletic Federation has never erased her achievement.
Example 3. (Santhi Soundrajan)
is athlete has been stripped of her silver medal won at the Asian Games at the
women's 800m race, but a gender veri cation test identi ed her as a male. is has
had serious psychological consequences which resulted in her attempt to commit
suicide in 2007 by trying to poison herself.
Example 4. (Herman Ratjen)
is athlete wins fourth place at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, but in a female
category under the name of Dora Ratjen. He took the responsibility for the fraud
and confessed it after more than ten years and tried to justify on the basis of the
pressure in the name of the superior race.
Example 5. (Ewa Klobukowska)
is woman athlete has been known as the rst one to have failed the gender veri ca-
tion test. At 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games she won the gold medal in the women's
4x100 and the bronze medal in the women's 100m. A year later she set a world record
in the 100m sprint. At the 1966 European Championship she won two gold medals
in the 100m sprint and the 4x100m relay and the silver medal in the 200m sprint. In
1967 she failed gender test and IAAF stripped her of all medals and erased all her re-
sults. A few years later she gave birth to a son which threw a great deal of suspicion on
the IAAF's decision and the applied method of sex determination.
Dragan Kinkela, Viktor Moretti, Veno Đonlić: Moral and legal dilemmas regarding determining...
117
Example 6. (Caster Semenya)
At the young age of 18 she won gold in the women's 800m at the 2009 World
Championship in Berlin. She underwent sex determination test following the semi-
nal race because of her appearance. e results were inconclusive and she won the
nal race. Her female sex has been disputed even though the test results have still
not been publicly published, but she has been banned from competitions until their
publication.
is last example, related to a young South African female middle-distance runner,
has become in a short period of time very complicated. e complications have
arisen from the engagement of legal experts who have built the protection of dignity
and privacy of the young athlete, as well as her right to her result. e Interna-
tional Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) has also hired a team of lawyers
who wanted to defend the boundaries of determining female sex and credibility of
the result, while trying at the same time to respect the privacy of the young athlete.
Chronological timeline of certain developments and statements.
e International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) stated that it had re-
quired a gender veri cation test for Caster Semenya just before the beginning of the
nal race, which provoked negative reactions in South Africa and worldwide.
e case of Caster Semenya was covered by some papers in sensation-seeking man-
ner and with harsh headlines, showing no humanity nor dignity, which brought
public to her side, regardless of her sex.
"Our sports lady" was just one of the signs that were waiting for her.
e Minister for Women Children and Persons with Disabilities said: " ank you
for hoisting our ag high. ank you for bringing South Africa back to the map of
the world."
Semenya's legal team had reached an agreement with the IAAF's legal team to keep
her medal and the prize money, which proved the involvement of legal dialectics.
IAAF's secretary general refused to comment the test results, but did comment that
it is "clear that Semenya is a woman, although perhaps not 100%". "It should be
seen if she has had any pro t related to her intersexuality."
Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Leonard Chuene admitted that he did have
the gender veri cation test results (he resigned). e team physician Harold Adams
advised Semenya to withdraw from the race based on the test results, but Chuene
made the decision not to do it. Reasons can only be speculated. But they de nitely
do not belong to the category of morality.
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Conclusion
e chronology of developments between the IAAF and ASA, which has so far
brought forward many dilemmas in a seemingly simple case, is evident. Legal struc-
tures were involved, human rights were questioned, a dead race without results took
place. is case has not yet been closed, but we have to be brave and respond that
the biggest losers, apart from the silver medal winner athlete, are disrupted moral
norms which have been established in sports ethics, and sport itself.
Many athletes, perhaps the majority, have victory as the basic aim of their competi-
tions. Victory brings glory, respect, admiration, and every word uttered by a winner
suddenly becomes signi cant and as important as the achieved result. In sport, the
winner wins money, a lot of material values, expensive cars, kilograms of gold, privi-
leges, a small wealth. Is the aim to leave that to somebody else? Contemporary civi-
lization wants victory at any cost. What are doping and frauds if not evidence that
the victory is the only aim. How sweet is victory, and how bitter (and a source of
negative stress) defeat?
e other side of the medal tells as that victory is an imposed material value because
above victory there is an immaterial victory, a victory to remember. Sports result has
a time limited value which lasts as long as the continuity of good results of a team,
or successful career of an athlete or a sports result.
By combination of circumstances, to turn one's back to the victory, to be stronger
than the victory with the purpose of preserving and promoting personal ethical
views and showing high moral, human characteristic at the brink of victory and
glory often has more strength than the sports result itself.
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2. Radovan Medved i suradnici, Sportska medicina, Jugoslavenska medicinska naklada, Zagreb 1987, p.
374.
3. Šalaj Sanja, Gregov Cvita, Dragan Milanović, Žene u vrhunskom sportu, Proceedings of the 7th Alps
Adriatic European Sports Conference, Opatija 2009, p. 97.
4. http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/print71811
5. http//www. dadalos.org/frienden-hr/grundkurs-5/fair-play.htm