Sport (page 3 of 3)

Article about access to sport, and competing in sporting activities. Read our briefing page.

Caster Semenya draped in the South African flag

OII Australia congratulates Caster Semenya on her Olympic medal

We don’t know if Caster Semenya is an intersex woman or not. Despite numerous statements in the local press, we are not aware of any official public disclosure regarding her status. Nevertheless, she has faced salacious enquiry and humiliation as if she is. We salute her strength in the face of adversity, and congratulate her…
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“Out of Bounds? A Critique of the New Policies on Hyper­androgenism in Elite Female Athletes”

Katrina Karkazis, Rebecca Jordan-Young, Georgiann Davis and Silva Comporesi write in The American Journal of Bioethics on new IAAF/IOC policies on hyperandrogenism in female athletes: In May 2011, more than a decade after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) abandoned sex testing, they devised new policies in response…
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OII Australia founding president, Gina Wilson

Gina Wilson: Sexism is the Issue with the IOC

THE issue with the IOC – International Olympic Committee – is sexism and every woman should be outraged. Why? Physical advantage Every gold medallist since the beginning of the modern Olympics, and most likely those in the old Olympics has a physical advantage over his competitors. The underlying prejudice in the current situation is that…
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London Olympics photo by Farrukh

OII petition to International Olympic Committee regarding intersex athletes

WE, the undersigned, support the members of the Organisation Intersex International, in their demands that: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) abandon its demands that female athletes with intersex variations have their variations diagnosed and treated. The IOC allow the above mentioned athletes, known as intersex women, to compete as females without having to undergo diagnosis…
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quotation by Warren

Patricia Nell Warren: “The IOC and gender inquisition”

Opinion piece by Patricia Nell Warren, reprinted with kind permission from the author. While the IAAF has been backing and filling on the Caster Semenya case, many of us have been waiting for the IOC shoe to drop. Yesterday the shoe dropped. In Miami Beach, a panel of so-called “experts” convened by the IOC and…
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scalpel

London Telegraph: “IAAF offers to pay for Caster Semenya’s gender surgery if she fails verification test”

Disturbing news in the London Telegraph: The International Association of Athletics Federations has offered to pay Caster Semenya’s medical expenses should she require gender surgery or other treatment to continue competing as a woman. The IAAF is still awaiting the final results of the gender verification test carried out on the South African teenager during…
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OII Australia founding president, Gina Wilson

Gina Wilson: “Ms Semenya, I Never Knew You”

The events surrounding the gold medal run by Ms Caster Semenya in August of this year have created a perfect storm of speculation around intersex. I know little about Ms Semenya save that she has, by winning a gold medal, brought the full force of sex binary enforcement and intersexphobia down on her apparently unsuitable…
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