Canadian Athlete Challenges Lost Medal

Canadian Athlete Challenges Lost Medal

Santhi Soundarajan is a 25-year-old runner. A very good runner. She won silver after finishing second in the 800 meters at the Asian Games, held in Doha, Qatar.

Later, the Indian Olympic Association stripped Soundarajan of her medal, claiming that she "does not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman." The test was administered by a medical commission set up by the Games' organizers.

The International Olympic Commission (IOC) no longer does genetic testing of athletes but the Olympic Council of Asia continues to conduct tests, according to the India Times.

Now a Canadian transgendered athlete, has joined tht fight to have Soundarajan's medal returned. Kristen Worley, a cyclist and waterskier, has written IOC president Jacques Rogge a pair of letters criticizing how the Indian runner was stripped of her medal. Worley argues Soundarajan should never have been subjected to a gender test. She also says the incident is an example of the misconceptions surrounding the issue of gender in sport.

"The very reason they stopped sex testing before the Sydney Games was specifically because of the inconsistency, genetically, of a women's makeup," Worley said in a telephone interview. "Chromosomes do not give the actual sex or gender of a person's make up."

Mianne Bagger, the first male-to-female golfer to play professionally, has also sent Rogge a letter of protest. Bagger, a Dane, was barred from the professional golf circuit when she had sex-reassignment surgery in 1995, but finally won admission in late 2004.

In 2004 the IOC allowed athletes who have undergone sex reassignment to compete in elite level sports. Some of the conditions imposed include: athletes having to wait for two years after surgery to compete; and legal recognition of their assigned sex.

source -

RA-news