Gender issues in olympic games

Mandatory gender testing was officially stopped by the International Olympic Committee in , though there can be evaluation of individual athletes if there is any question regarding gender identity. Women's m runner Caster Semenya from South Africa was required to undergo gender tests after winning the World Championships in her first international competition. In that race she seemed to run a poor tactical race, and was accused by some of holding back so not to win and cause further controversy.

The IAAF have guidelines for gender verification adopted in April largely in response to the issues with Semenya , in which female athletes now have to fall below a certain threshold of testosterone. For many female athletes the new eligibility criteria means compulsory hormonal therapy. For the Olympic Games, officials implemented a test of testosterone levels.

However, unlike past tests which were given to all competitors in women's events, this test will be administered only when the chief medical officer of a national Olympic committee or a member of the IOC's medical commission requests it.

The new rules disqualify athletes from women's events if they have testosterone levels in the normal male range, which is 7 to 30 nanomoles per liter in the blood. The top range for women is just below 3 nanomoles per liter. Athletes with complete androgen insensitivity will be allowed to compete. Following the Stockholm Consensus, transsexuals those who have had a sex change from male to female were permitted to compete in women's events at the Olympics as long they underwent gender reassignment surgery, as well as having legal recognition of their assigned gender and at least two years of hormone therapy.

Both baseball and softball also return to the Olympics after a year hiatus. The Tokyo Games will have double the number of mixed-gender events than in , for 18 total, including in archery, shooting, judo, table tennis, track and field, triathlon, swimming and surfing. The International Judo Federation had pushed to add a mixed-team event, with three men and three women on each team, to the Olympics "for years," the organization's spokesman, Nicolas Messner, told ABC News.

Having a mixed team was "natural," he said. And while there won't be any spectators at the Games, the event has had an "amazing" atmosphere in other competitions. Additionally, for the opening ceremony, all Olympic teams are encouraged to have one male and one female athlete carry their country's flag. When the games are broadcast, women's events will also have more visibility in the Games, with a more balanced schedule on the weekends -- including more women's team gold medal events 17 than men's 13 on the last weekend -- according to McConnell.

A report by the Women's Sports Foundation found that media coverage of men's and women's athletes in the Olympics was "relatively equitable. Having more women in the Olympics has a "ripple effect," with more investment and equality in other competitions, McConnell said.

The Olympics can also create a pathway for professional athletes. In boxing, women first competed in the Olympics at the Games in London. At Rio in , there were 36 female boxers and three weight categories; that will be up to boxers and five weight categories for Tokyo. Basketball, soccer and softball are other sports that have benefited from an Olympic profile, according to Cheryl Cooky, a professor of women's, gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University, an editor of Sociology of Sport Journal and the co-author of "No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport, and the Unevenness of Social Change.

You competed in college and then once you graduated, your career opportunities were essentially over for the most part. Even as the Olympics are set to have full gender parity by , other areas within the Olympics movement are working toward greater gender equality.

For Tokyo, the Paralympic Games will have at least The organization has committed to working with international sports federations and national Olympic committees to have more female coaches. This year, some women had to fight to bring their breastfed children with them as the IOC had barred families from the Olympic Village. The Representation Project, a US-based gender justice group, says its analysis of prime-time media coverage of the first week of Tokyo found female athletes are about 10 times more likely to be visually objectified with a camera angle than male athletes.

It also found that two-thirds of female athletes wore revealing outfits compared with half of male athletes. Research Piggott conducted with Matthews of the University of Chichester found that women make up just 22 percent of executive boards in international sporting organisations and only seven percent of president or chair roles. Meanwhile, only 10 percent of accredited coaches at the Summer and Winter Olympics over the past decade have been women.

By Zaheena Rasheed.