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Short Wave

What Is An Unfair Advantage In Sports?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 β€’ 6K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 10 August 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

We at Short Wave have been following all things Olympics, from the medals and new records to the ugly accusations that two women boxers aren't really women. Last year, the boxers failed gender tests, according to the International Boxing Association. The IBA claims the women have a "hormonal imbalance" that gives them women an unfair advantage. The International Olympic Committee has condemned these claims and defended the boxers' right to compete in the women's category. But this Olympics is far from the first time the gender of athletes has been questioned.

NPR's Embedded podcast has a new series called Tested that gets into this history of sex testing in elite sports – in particular, track and field. In this excerpt, host Rose Eveleth digs deep on a big question: What constitutes an "unfair" advantage on the track?

Listen to the full Tested series now.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.0

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0:15.2

You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

0:20.0

Hey Shortwavers, Emily Kwonk here.

0:21.5

So the Olympics ends this weekend,

0:23.3

and I have been riveted watching the first all-black gymnastics

0:27.1

podium of Rebecca Andraj, Simone Biles,

0:29.6

and Jordan Childs take the stage.

0:31.7

Breakaway cyclist Kristen Faulkner, rugby player

0:34.0

alone a mar. I mean the tenacity of these women is just so inspiring. But this

0:39.4

Olympics has also come with some serious fear-mongering around gender. Last year, two female boxers,

0:47.5

Algeria's Imane-Haulif and Taiwan's Lynn Yuteng were disqualified from the World Championships by the International Boxing Association,

0:57.0

it stated that they failed gender tests and had an unfair advantage in fights due to their quote hormonal imbalance end quote

1:05.3

this claim has been condemned by the International Olympic Committee which runs the

1:10.4

games the IOC president Thomas Bach defended the boxers right to compete in the

1:15.2

women's category of the games this year.

1:18.0

Let's be very clear here. We have two boxes who are born as a woman, who have been raised as a woman and who have

1:28.9

competed for many years as women.

1:34.0

There was never any doubt about them being a woman.

...

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