Health Beyond the Blog: “Tested” by Rose Eveleth

Sex Testing and Challenges for Athletes in Olympic Sports on “Tested” by Rose Eveleth

by Ananya Dash

The Paris Olympics’ energy and controversies drew me in, even though I am not a sports fan. When Imane Khelif, a female Algerian boxer, was met with intense scrutiny for not being a real woman, I was shaken. I then started to dig deeper into the science of sports and sex-testing. 

I came across Tested, a six-part podcast series, hosted by Rose Eveleth (who uses they/them pronouns) from CBC, NPR’s Embedded, and Bucket of Eels. Each episode explores women’s sports through the lens of history, science, and society. The prologue to the series discusses the birth of the Olympics, a gathering to celebrate the strength of men. At this time, society deemed it “improper” for women to compete. Eventually, they were allowed to participate, but these athletes were constantly questioned whether they were women at all.

Tested follow the journeys of elite female runners who are compelled to change their biology or battle the system to follow their dreams to compete. In Episode 1, “The Choice”, we are introduced to Christine Mboma, a 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist from Namibia. When Mboma was tested by World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, she was found to be a difference of sex development (DSD) athlete. DSD athletes have higher testosterone levels than most women, relegating them to the official category of intersex. World Athletics then ruled that Mboma must lower her testosterone level to compete in the Paris Olympics or give up her running career. 

Eveleth takes a deep dive into what it means to be a woman and to be DSD, and the challenges female athletes face. They remind us that Mboma and several other female athletes have changed their biology based on twisted facts and half-baked science. Is it ethical to fundamentally change who you are via medication and surgery? How does that intersect with judgment for not being a “real” women if you are outed as DSD? What happens to athletes who do not have the resources to undergo medical interventions?

Eveleth leaves us with an interesting conundrum after telling the stories of Mboma and others. Sports authorities have a near-insatiable compulsion to create a level playing field for female athletes despite the complexities of our bodies, and any divergence from the definitions of the sex binary.  How will they handle clash at the next Olympics? Only time will tell.

Tested is available on all streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

An interview of Rose Eveleth about the making of the podcast can be found in this article published by Scientific American.