Beyond XY: the history of transgender athletes is more complicated than Vladimir Putin thinks

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XY-Problems

The 2024 Paris Olympics saw boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan clinch gold, but their victories were overshadowed by a prolonged gender controversy. The storm began after Khelif's opening bout in the round of 16 against Italy's Angela Carini. Just 46 seconds into the match, Carini threw in the towel after taking several powerful blows to the face. Visibly shaken, she cried out “This is unfair” in Italian – a moment captured on the live broadcast. Later, in a tearful interview, Carini said she had never experienced such forceful hits before.

Later, the Italian apologized to Iman Khelif, clarifying that she was angry not because of whom she had to fight, but because of her quick elimination from the long-awaited Olympics. Carini also apologized for not shaking Khelif's hand, a snub that helped to fuel the wave of gender-related hate directed against the Algerian.

But it was too late: the apologies of Khelif's first opponent were drowned in a flood of discussions and speculations, which, due to the overall background, also engulfed Lin Yu-Ting.

The issue was further inflamed by Khelif’s subsequent opponents. For example, Hungarian boxer Anna Luka Hamori declared before the quarterfinals: “If he or she really is a man, my victory will be even more significant.” Hamori lost unanimously to Khelif and hugged her after the fight.

Lin Yu-Ting’s opponents twice hinted at injustice — through gestures, rather than words — after their fights: Stefana Staneva from Bulgaria and Esra Kahraman from Turkey, after losing, crossed their fingers to symbolize their XX chromosomes.

The problems for Khelif and Lin largely stemmed from false or misinterpreted facts. Neither of them had undergone sex changes, nor had they been suspected of such until 2023, when they were disqualified from the World Championships in New Delhi during the later stages of the tournament — Khelif had already reached the final, and Lin the semifinals.

The International Boxing Association (IBA), headed by Russian Umar Kremlev, announced that Khelif and Lin, along with two other athletes, had failed a “gender test.” The results and details were not disclosed, and there is no public information about the testosterone levels (or other “gender indicators”) of Iman Khelif or Lin Yu-Ting. Kremlev later claimed that DNA tests revealed that the women had XY chromosomes and that they “tried to deceive their colleagues and passed themselves off as women” — again without offering any concrete proof.

The fact that the issue was actually about elevated testosterone levels — during the Olympics, this became one of the central topics — was later indirectly confirmed by Mark Adams, a representative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Adams stated that the IOC does not consider the testosterone test the best method for determining sex.

The publication Inside the Games noted during the Olympics that the IBA had updated the article in its main regulations regarding gender identity. In May 2023, it included the clarification: “A woman is an individual with XX chromosomes,” along with a note that participants could be subjected to random or targeted gender testing. The World Championship, in which Khelif and Lin were disqualified due to “failed” gender tests, took place in March.

The conflict between the Olympic organizers and the IBA has been ongoing for a long time. Its roots lie in corruption issues and what the IOC considers opaque management, including sponsorship by Russian state gas company Gazprom. As a result, the IOC suspended the IBA, stripped the association of its right to conduct the Olympic tournament (creating a separate working group for this purpose), and excluded boxing from the program for the 2028 Games.

Due to the special status of the sport, the Olympics operated under rules different from those of the IBA, and biochemical tests for sex determination were not conducted. During the Games, when the issue of gender identity arose in relation to Khelif and Lin, IOC representative Adams stated that the organization does not consider the testosterone test the best method for determining sex.

The boxers won gold medals in their weight categories in Paris, but they are far from unbeatable. For example, Iman Khelif's highest achievement before the 2024 Olympics was a silver medal at the 2022 World Championships, and at the Tokyo Games in 2021, she competed without much attention and was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Lin Yu-Ting won the World Championships twice (in 2018 and 2022), but at the Tokyo Olympics, she lost in her first match.

True transitions

The Summer Games in Tokyo indeed set a widely noted precedent regarding open transgender athletes — but in weightlifting rather than in boxing. New Zealander Laurel Hubbard was one of the favorites in the heaviest weight category, and in 2017, she won a silver medal at the World Championships.

In 1998, still competing as Gavin Hubbard, she set a national junior record, but three years later, she quit training. Hubbard’s results stagnated — she couldn’t make it to the men’s national team, and psychological problems related to self-identification began to mount. In 2012, following the start of hormone therapy, Laurel emerged.

Nine years later, Hubbard competed in the Olympics, but without success. In the first exercise, the snatch, she did not lift the weight in any of the three attempts and finished the competition in last place with no result.

The Paris 2024 games feature an openly transgender athlete — not in the Olympics, but in the Paralympic competition. Valentina Petrillo, a 50-year-old Italian runner, is competing in the visually impaired category due to her Stargardt disease, a condition affecting the retina.

Petrillo decided on her gender transition in 2017, confided in her wife (by then they had a son), and two years later, began hormone therapy. By 2020, Valentina met the conditions to complete the women's category. She views her transition as an opportunity to fulfill a dream while gaining a second chance in life.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) emphasized in a statement to the media that transgender athletes must demonstrate testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before competing in women’s events. This level is higher than the average for women (less than 2 nmol/L) but significantly lower than the normal range for men (around 30 nmol/L).

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has banned transgender women who transitioned after puberty from participating in women's competitions. However, this ban does not apply to the Paralympics.

In an interview with AP, Valentina Petrillo shared a touching story about how she became interested in and fell in love with athletics when she watched Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea win gold in the 200-meter race at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, when she was seven years old:

“I said I wanted to be like him, I wanted to go to the Olympics. But — there was a very important 'but' — I wanted to achieve this as a woman, because I didn't feel like a man.”

Born as a boy named Fabrizio, she ran until the age of 14, when she (still he at the time) was diagnosed with an incurable eye disease. Valentina turned to Paralympic sports at the age of 41 and immediately found success: from 2015 to 2018, she won eleven victories in Italian tournaments in the male category of male athletes with very poor vision. In this same category, she qualified for the Paralympics — but as a woman.

Petrillo's participation in competitions has been met with controversy. The loudest protests came from Spanish runner Melanie Burgess, who finished just behind Valentina in the semifinals of the World Championships, failed to qualify for the final, and lost her chance to make it to the Paralympics. The Spaniard called such competition unfair, adding that while she accepts and respects transgender people in everyday life, she views them differently in sports, where physical strength is paramount.

Studies: Transgender people do not have an edge in sports

In defending her right to compete with women after her gender transition, Valentina Petrillo cites a study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and published in April this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. One of its main conclusions is that transgender women not only do not have an advantage, but in some parameters, they even fall short of those who were born as females.

The study found that transgender women had better results in hand strength but worse results in lung function (volume and maximum oxygen consumption) and jump height. Petrillo highlights these details.

Moreover, the testosterone levels in transgender women ranged from 0.2 to 1.2 nmol/L — compared to 0.5–1.3 in those identified as female at birth — and transgender women showed twice the level of the female hormone estrogen.

The researchers based their study on laboratory and functional tests of 19 individuals born male, 12 transgender men, 21 individuals born female, and 23 transgender women. Their observations showed that the main difference in physical strength parameters lies in height and weight: transgender women are generally taller and heavier, but their “body composition” is similar to that of those who were born female.

Hormone therapy, which is a part of gender transition, primarily affects the formation of fat tissues, the researchers conclude. They note that differences may be especially significant in sports where “body composition,” i.e., muscle mass and raw strength, plays a greater role, such as in weightlifting or boxing.

The nuances of the impact of gender transition related therapy are not well studied, and the available data generally indicate a small difference in cardiovascular endurance between transgender women and women by birth, according to research conducted by Dr. Leonardo Alvarez, a professor of endocrinology at the University of São Paulo.

In an interview with The Insider, Alvarez points out that relying solely on XY and XX chromosomes to determine gender is insufficient, as chromosomes do not always predetermine sexual dimorphism. This means that it is incorrect to simply assume that “since most women have XX chromosomes, a person with XY chromosomes is not a woman.”

The Brazilian scientist emphasizes a paradox: even if the female boxers who won the Olympics were actually transgender, they likely could have competed in the Games provided that they maintained the required testosterone levels. This level could be three to four times higher than the average female level but below the 10 nmol/L threshold, which would have been sufficient for participation without special conditions from the Boxing Federation, which had no right to interfere with the organization of the Olympic tournament.

The Battle with Testosterone

Testosterone levels were the most common reason for doping bans among athletes in the mid-2000s. In 2006 alone, 1,124 such cases were recorded, according to a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The organization stated at the time that specialized laboratories had learned to accurately detect byproducts indicating deviations from normal testosterone levels. Since then, hormone therapy as a means of enhancing athletic performance has largely disappeared — it's simply too easy to get caught.

Athletics has long had to deal with naturally high testosterone levels. The most notable example is South African runner Caster Semenya. She began winning at a high level at the age of 18, taking gold in the 800-meter race at the 2009 World Championships. Her results, combined with her androgynous appearance, sparked rumors and accusations. For nearly ten years, Semenya competed under this “legal but suspect” status, becoming a two-time Olympic champion (London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016). During this time, she underwent gender tests.

In 2019, the IAAF adopted new regulations limiting the permissible level of testosterone for competitors in women’s events. The switch forced Semenya to artificially lower her levels, and after losing a legal battle, the runner retired in 2019 at the age of 28.

This was not the first time the introduction of gender tests has led a female athlete to retire prematurely. Irina Press won two Olympic golds (80 meter hurdles in 1960 and pentathlon in 1964), and her sister, Tamara Press won three (shot put in 1960, plus shot put and discus throw in 1964). But in 1966, basic gynecological exams were introduced, and the two Soviet athletes stopped competing at a high level. Neither was even 30 years old.

Tolerance levels toward transgender athletes in sports have changed multiple times in the 21st century. The IOC first developed rules for their participation in the Olympic Games in 2003: at that time, access to competitions was granted upon confirmation of a completed gender reassignment surgery, the administration of hormone therapy, and the presence of reissued documents under the athlete’s new identity. Technically, transgender people could participate in the Games starting from Athens 2004 — but none took advantage of this opportunity.

Twelve years later, before Rio 2016, the regulations were simplified. Through consultations and in line with evolving public opinion, the IOC removed the requirement for gender reassignment surgery, leaving only the requirement to self-identify and not to have changed this decision for at least four years. Additionally, a condition regarding testosterone levels was introduced: below 10 nmol/L for a full year before the first competition, and also during the events themselves.

These rules were in effect in 2021 when Laurel Hubbard competed in Tokyo — she was the first to take advantage of them. However, the reaction to Hubbard's participation in the women's tournament, despite her poor results, was so strongly negative that attitudes toward transgender participation in traditional competitions were significantly reassessed.

Meanwhile, the IOC delegated responsibility regarding the issue to individual sports federations, explaining that a one-size-fits-all solution was impossible due to the significant differences between Olympic disciplines. It is clear that the requirements and restrictions for technical sports (such as shooting, archery, golf, or equestrian sports) differ from those in strength and speed disciplines (like track, boxing, weightlifting, and swimming).

The Olympic Committee also advised against compelling athletes to undergo medical procedures and emphasized the importance of maintaining maximum privacy. For instance, the International Swimming Federation was one of the first to respond, announcing its readiness to organize separate competitions for transgender athletes — ensuring they are acknowledged while also not including them in traditional tournaments.