Finding Fairness: A Closer Look at How the IOC Defines ‘Woman

By Robbert Wijtman​

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After the debacle with Women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) put together a task force to determine “what is a woman”. And they have come to a conclusion. In their view, an athlete must not possess approximately 20 base pairs of nucleotide. Or if you were born with XY chromosomes, but have a defect where you can not convert or use testosterone, a condition known as Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome(CAIS), you may compete as a woman. Let me say this another way: “A Woman” XX can not have the SRY gene, which is normally found on the Y chromosome. A male XY may compete, but only if they are unable to get the competitive advantage of Testosterone, even though they may produce endogenous (from one's own body) testosterone.

 

Now, add to this solution the fact that the test the IOC is using, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), only examines a very small part of the entire gene, specifically 20 to 30 base pairs. To put it simply, that means only about 5 percent of the gene is used in the PCR test. The larger SRY gene, including its promoter (the region that controls when the gene is active) and coding sequence (the part that encodes the protein), spans approximately 400 to 600 base pairs. For the gene to function correctly and produce the protein needed to induce masculinization of the fetus, the entire gene must be present and intact. Using only a tiny segment is like looking at a single word from a long paragraph and assuming you understand the whole message. Furthermore, there is a known condition where the SRY gene, or part of the gene, is transferred to an X chromosome. This XX female would test positive for the SRY gene if they had that 20-30 base pair part of the SRY gene, even though they would be female.

A functioning SRY gene, whether it is in an XX or XY individual, will make that person look like a male: hair, beard, and all the rest. Moreover, an individual with an XX or XY, without a functioning SRY gene, will make that person look like a female: breasts and hips and all the rest.

Feel confused? Me too, and I know this stuff. Genetics is not simple, and when you are trying to determine what is “A Woman”, there are bound to be differences in concepts. Cultural, religious, scientific, social ethics, and personal morality all play a part. In my humble opinion, I don't think the IOC has hit upon a winner with this one. There are ju

st too many holes in the proposal. The last thing I want is a lawyer-ed-up Olympics. I am really hoping the IOC rethinks this one. Again, in my opinion, we can not have a hybrid group of people who pass a set of criteria be our pool of Olympic female athletes. I think we can do better.