NEWS: Athletic Scandal: Female Runner Tests Positive for "Man"

CELEB: Athletic Scandal: Female Runner Tests Positive for "Man"

Dating back to the 8th century BC practice of downing sheep testicles to gain sheep-like strength and agility, the art of cheating has threatened the spirit of fair play for centuries, always tempting the lagging tortoises of the world to employ more underhanded means when slow and steady alone won't do. With the very legitimacy of sport itself in constant peril, it's no wonder officials and the like are constantly doing everything in their power to punish transgressors and keep competitions as clean as possible. But when swift justice is called for, the intricacies of a situation can be ignored along with the fundamental rights of the individual to dignity and privacy. At least that seems to have been the case with runner Santhi Soundararajan who, after testing positive for the performance enhancing sex known as "male," was stripped of the silver medal she earned at the Asian Games in Doha

Prior to the test that could very well ruin her athletic career, Soundarajan's journey was touted as "iconic" by the press. Rising from an impoverished town near Tiruchirapalli to participate in international competitions and win several races on her nation's behalf, the young woman was living the stuff of TV movies and Wheaties boxes. After her second place win in the 800m race on December 9th at the Asian Games concluded with Soundarajan collapsing, pictures of the exhausted runner were plastered all over the papers and made it seem as though she was destined to go home a hero.

But before her medal even had the chance to settle on her neck, Soundjaran was whisked away to the land of gender verification and subjected to a unique test that is only performed at the behest of official concerns or the strident protests of a rival team. After being subjected to rigorous examination at the hands of a team that is said to be a gynecologist, endocrinologist and psychologist, it was found that Soundjaran lacked 'sexual characteristics of a woman,' did not quality for female competition, and would therefore have to relinquish her medal.

As shocking and shaming as the development was, some came out in Soundjaran's defense. Among them was P T Usha, former athlete and apparent inspiration to Soundjaran herself, wondered why gender tests had not been conducted before the games.

Shanthi Soundjaran actually had been subject to gender verification tests prior to her December 9th victory at both the Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon, South Korea last year and again in India immediately before her trip to Doha for the Asian Games, both of which she passed. She was also apparently subjected to a third test outside of her athletic career when she applied for a government job, though she failed that one and was denied the position as a result.

The apparent flexibility of Shanti Soundjaran's sex highlights a problem inherent in the concept of physical gender itself. While the automatic assumption is that someone who lacks 'sexual characteristics of a woman,' whatever those may be in a given test, is a de facto male, that is not always the case. In reality, one in a hundred births are said to be accompanied by the sort of complications and "tiny errors" that can lead to a number of intersex conditions and make the supposedly obvious matter of a person's physical gender impossible to determine using a simple game of doctor.

Assuming the Shanti Soundjaran situation was more than a case of tucking his junk betwixt his legs and flashing a convincing pout, it is likely that a new exam could magically render her a female again and grant her eligibility in further competitions and maybe, under the right circumstances, allow her to compete in the next iteration of the Asian Games in four years. Nonetheless, the image of the deceptive tranny is hard to shake and this unfortunate event will likely mar any victories she may yet earn by inviting the kind of snickers that even applause cannot mask and encouraging future rival teams to demand she verify her femininity again and again.

Soundjaran herself has chosen to evade the issue altogether, offering only feigned ignorance to curious parties.

Fox News, meanwhile, gives the impression that she has already willingly disappeared into the same obscurity she had been plucked from when she first began running professionally, leaving only pity in her wake.

While we cannot know for sure, it certainly seems as though things may be over for the 25-year-old woman (or whatever). When international sporting events are so strictly opposed to intergender competition, can a known intersexed athlete ever really fit in?

Wow this is one for the gender books... Is it that they are unsure that she is either gender? or is it that she is really male.. If either gender is the case it brings up a whole multude of questions that I think many are unwilling to deal with.

wow...at first i'm thinking it's a transexual or something...like a guy becoming a woman type of thing. but after reading this (and clicking on the links), i'm interested on what exactly is going on with the s/him. odd to say the least.

Sure does have a purdee mouth.

None of the articles specified exactly what criteria she failed to meet (only what tests she may have underwent), but with the fact that she successfully passed prior gender tests in mind I thought it was safe to imagine that there was a great degree of biological ambiguity preventing her from being considered male or female with any truly reasonable degree of certainty.

And yes, the very industry of His/Hers towels and bath robes is being threatened.

The 5'o clock shadow was a dead givaway.

UNFAIR.

thats funny

Well, if it IS a guy pretending to be a girl...he definitely shouldn't be competing against women. Rules are rules. But...well, what about a born hermaphrodite. That hardly seems fair. I just can't imagine the amount of disillusionment and feelings of exclusion that person would be going through.

she looks sharp in a sport coat.

Cartman's mom is an athlete now?

Que bullshit.

Haven't I seen him/her/whatever at the movies before??.......

Whatever the case is. They should just let her be and let her compete. Of course, I'm more open minded about gender identification then most people. Sometimes its what the spirit feels and not what the body displays.

I thought it was the 9" cock.

Had no idea it wasn't PC. I always related it to the Greek story about a boy named Hermes and the girl named Aphrodite that loved eachother so much they became the same person (which is where the term came from). Which to me, was beautiful. But, I won't use it, if it offends anyone.

It's not really a question of being open minded. If they don't do this sort of thing there's risk that female competition, and records, will become dominated by people in her position. I don't really see the point in these sports myself, but for those that do it would be a shame if about 51% of the human population didn't have a chance of winning, just because they were 100% female.

Agreed. This might seem like an arbitrary rule, but that's what sports are about. Just because Phil Mickelson or Chauncey Billups might have a "spirit" that feels like he should compete against women, doesn't mean that he should be allowed to.

I don't think it's fair to assume that having an ambiguous gender confers some kind of automatic advantage in athletics. Not being female by someone's standards doesn't automatically make her male, much less so hopped up on testosterone that she can demolish her competition.

If you look at the results for the 800 M, you'll see that Santhi ran a 2:03.16 run, earning second place behind a time of 2:01.79 and just in front of a time of 2:03.19.

For comparison, the gold medal for the men's 800 M was 1:45.74 while the lowest was 1:56.59.

Meanwhile, I'd say the majority of women (and men) have no hope of securing records or gold medal wins in any athletic competitions, regardless of whether or not people such as Santhi are banned. If it's going to be argued that she has a minor genetic advantage (and I don't think she does), then what about other genetic advantages such as being the child of two prominent athletes as opposed to the son of morbidly obese drug abusers?

I see what you're saying...but there has to be a line somewhere, right? In other words, no one is saying that she can't identify herself as a woman in any other aspect of her life. Just not in athletics. It sucks and its arbitrary rule, but where should the line be drawn (especially seeing as we don't know what requirement she failed to meet) as to who can compete as a "woman"?

I think they need to more clearly define where that line is if she thought she was a woman but they disagree. Otherwise it's time to introduce the middle of the gender line and have the non-specific gender races for the people who can't be clearly defined as male or female but still want to compete. Personally I think it would be easier to open up our minds on what is male or what is female; but if we do neither it's pretty unfair. Hooraydiation makes a pretty good case for her time being in line with other females. In other words she is "woman" enough to be competing at the same level as other females--shouldn't that be enough for the judges? I have my doubts as to how reasonable the characteristics they're determining gender are--most people are pretty conservative when it comes to gender determination.

I agree, but I'm not sure that the sports rules should or can be "open minded"

By that logic, a man could compete against women, as long as his times weren't drastically better than the field's? I don't think so.

Again, I think in life it is shitty to be so conservative and closed-minded, but sports aren't life. If the rules are "You must meet the following requirements in order to compete in women's divisions" then those are the requirements. I do agree that these rules have to be made expicit and well-known (and they shouldn't (as the case is now) vary from competition to competition.

There will always be someone on the other side of the line who thinks (and often justifiably so) that the line is arbitrary and unfair, but I don't think there's any way to draw it in a way that is "open minded."

Of course there should be a line, at least to eliminate the possibility of a Juwanna Man sequel. It's clear to me, though, that the supposed line is especially ill-defined if a woman can pass one gender test at the level of international competition and yet fail another.

These gender tests shouldn't be about gender policing such that a person will be judged by how well they fit the mold of the prototypical male or female. Rather, they should judge whether or not it is fair for the person to be competing among the sex he or she chooses to enter under.

And when I see no apparent benefit to having slightly more masculine qualities than the average women (such that anyone who would happen to fail a gender test would naturally be a better athlete), I don't really understand why that would be grounds for stripping someone of their medal.