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In the Olympics males compete as males, female compete as females - seems so simple doesn't it? It's not. Read about some cases that defy this seemingly simple rule.

Either scroll down to view all or click on a link to jump:

• Herman Ratjen: Man Competes as Female High Jumper 1936 Olympics
• 1932 Womens Gold Medalist: Dying to be a Man
• 6 Gold Medals Won by Russian Sisters...or Brothers?
• First Woman to Fail Olympic Gender Test.....Has a Baby
• Edinanci Silva: Hermaphrodite 3 Time Olympian
• Heidi Krieger: From Female to Male
• "She" was a World Champion Skier
• Olympic Committee: Transsexual Can Compete

 

Competing as Dora Ratjen "she" competed in the high jump category in the 1938 Olympic Games held in [Nazi] Germany.

His deception went undiscovered for almost 20 years until 1955."Dora" then going by the name Hermann Ratjen, claimed that the Nazis had forced him to enter the 1936 Olympics as a woman. Hermann is quoted as having said "For three years I lived the life of a girl. It was most dull."

Herman competed as a male in a female event – and failed to win a medal.

Polish Olympic sprinter Stalislawa Walasiewicz won a gold medal in the womens 100m at the 1932 Olympic Games and retired having set 11 world records.

She changed her name to Stella Walsh and moved to the United States. 

In 1980 she was out shopping at a Ohio store when she was innocently caught in the crossfire of a robbery attempt and shot dead.

Only then did an autopsy reveal the Olympic gold medalist was the owner of male sexual organs.

Rather infamous in Olympic gender history are two sisters: Tamara and Irena Press of the former U.S.S.R.

It was said of both sisters that their gender could not be determined. Some thought they were men disguised as women, they might be hermaphrodites, and some thought they had used so many male hormones [steroids] they had for all intents and purposes become men.

In addition to setting over 25 world records in the 1960’s, they won 6 Olympic medals between them; Tamara Press won 3 gold and 1 silver medal in 1960 and 1964 in shot put and discus and her sister Irena won 2 gold medals in the hurdles and pentathlon.

Coincidentally after gender testing for all international sporting events was made mandatory in 1968, both women immediately vanished forever from the sporting stage. The Western press took this as a confession while Russian media deny the allegations to this day.

Were they unjustly vilified or were they actually males?

To this day, almost 50 years later, that has never been determined.

Polish sprinter and two-time Olympic medalist Ewa Klobukowska was the first Olympic athlete to fail a gender test.

The co-holder of the women's 100-meter world record [11.1 sec.] failed an early form of the chromatin test in 1967 due to her genotype being XXY rather than XX and was subsequently banned from competing in professional sports.

One small issue – Ewa later gave birth to a son proving beyond all doubt she was a female.

Ewa on the far right of this photo receiving a bronze medal on the 1964 Olympics.

Edinanci Silva was born a hermaphrodite, and the Brazilian judo player had surgery in 1996 so that she could live and compete as a woman. In April of that year, she underwent a double operation: removal of her male sex organ with clitoral reconstruction surgery.

She then went on to compete in three Olympics: Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens in 2004.

In Sydney 2000 Olympics, she beat the Australian athlete Natalie Jenkins, who raised the issue of Silva's gender in a press conference, constantly referring to her as "he". "I have never fought that one before. My plan was not to grip with her, she's - he's - very strong," she said. Silva gave a mouth swab to officials, which proved she was female.

Edinanci says "To this day, many judokas do not want to compete with me. I know that I am different, but my mind thinks and acts like that of a woman.

Not the clearest video, but shows Edinanci competing againest a Cubano judoka Yurisel Laborde in 2007

Born Erika Schinegger in Austria in 1948, she was the world champion women's downhill skier in 1966.

She planned to compete in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France, where athletes had to undergo a gender test. When the results came back examining doctor is said to have exclaimed, "I'm going crazy. There's a man racing on the Austrian ladies' team!"

Schinegger was retested and when the confirming results came in, Austria's ski officials asked her to resign "for personal reasons."

Schinegger is said to have never known about her biological gender confusion, but to have always had doubts. She had never menstruated nor developed breasts.

After the test confirmed her gender issues, a shocked Schinegger entered an Innsbruck hospital for further testing. An abdominal incision confirmed that she possessed male sex organs inside. After months of painful surgery, he became a full male and went on to father 2 children.

Changing her name to Erik, he resumed racing on the men's Europa Cup tour and won three races in the winter of 1968-69. The head coach of the Austrian team told Schinegger he wasn't wanted on the Austrian team as his presence was an "embarrassment."

In a display of class, Schinegger voluntarily surrendered his 1966 world gold medal to Marielle Goitschel of France, the runner-up, whom he called the “true winner”.

2004 was the first year that the International Olympic Committee passed rulings allowing transsexuals [people who have changed sex] to compete in the games.

International Olympic Committee said transgender athletes could compete in the Olympics if they met certain requirements, completing genital reconstructive surgery and at least two years of hormonal therapy.

The IOC also requires that "legal recognition of their assigned sex has been conferred by the appropriate official authorities," such as by a nation's courts.  

A concern many have is that transgender women, having gone through male puberty, could have bigger bodies, denser bones and greater lung and heart capacity than their competition thereby giving them an unfair advantage in sports.

Opponents of the new Olympic policy on transsexuals also say allowing some athletes to take hormones during a crackdown on performance-enhancing steroids is confusing.

Pat Connoly, an American  former 3 time Olympic runner and now coach said "It's the biggest insult to women and everything we've gone through. Gradually over the years, (the Olympics) started adding events for women. Why? To give women an opportunity to compete. Because there's an essential difference between men and women. Any dummy on the street knows the difference."

Although efforts were made by transsexuals to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, there are no known ones competing.

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