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46 Ind. L. Rev. 387 (2013)
The Intersection of Women's Olympic Sport and Intersex Athletes: A Long and Winding Road

handle is hein.journals/indilr46 and id is 419 raw text is: THE INTERSECTION OF WOMEN'S OLYMPIC SPORT AND INTERSEX ATHLETES: A LONG AND WINDING ROAD* DANIEL GANDERT** ALFRED BAE*** TIMOTHY WOERNER.** TERESA MEECE*.... INTRODUCTION In August 2009, Caster Semenya, an eighteen-year-old runner from South Africa, was under suspicion after a victorious performance in the women's 800- meter event at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin.' When Semenya was noticeably absent from a post-race news conference, an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) official took Semenya's place to address the developing controversy surrounding her win.2 The official spoke about what had been confirmed by the IAAF earlier in the day-that Semenya was undergoing sex determination testing, also called gender testing.3 The IAAF's response to the young woman's performance was curious: it was unclear on what basis officials decided that the appropriate action was to test Semenya's status as a woman rather than to take other action such as testing for performance enhancing drugs. The General Secretary of the IAAF and former Triple Jumper, Pierre Weiss, emphasized that gender testing was prompted by ambiguity, not because we believe she is cheating.4 Elisa Cusma of Italy stated her issue with Semenya more vigorously: These kind of people should not run with us.... For me, she's not a woman. She's a man.5 Cusma's accusations are hard to take literally. The fear was not that Semenya was biologically a man, but that she had a condition which would preclude her from fitting neatly into the binary sex categories used in athletic competition.6 Semenya's case likely brought unique concern to her rivals given the * The authors would like to thank Maribel Nash for her help with this Article, as well as the rest of the Northwestern Law library staff for their research assistance. ** Program on Negotiation and Mediation Faculty, Northwestern University School of Law. *** Ernst & Young, LLP. * J.D. Candidate, 2013, Northwestern University School of Law. *****~ J.D. Candidate, 2014, Northwestern University School of Law. 1. Christopher Clarey, Gender Test After a Gold-Medal Finish, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 20, 2009, at B 13, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/sports/20runner.htm?_r=O. 2. Id. The International Association of Athletics Federations is the International Federation for the sport of track & field and, as such, serves as the governing body for the sport. See About the IAAF, IAAF, http://www.iaaf.org/about-iaaf (last visited Feb. 26, 2013). 3. Id. 4. Id. 5. Id. 6. Id.

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