IN 1957 female high jumper Dora Ratjen made an amazing confession: she was a man. Ratjen (real name Hermann), who had competed for Germany in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin and broke the women’s world record two years later, said that Nazi officials had persuaded him to masquerade as a woman to bring glory to the Reich.

International athletics has often had an uneasy relationship with gender. From 1966 to 1996 female athletes were routinely genetically tested to confirm that they were women, following rumours that Soviet-bloc countries were entering male athletes in women’s events. Despite this scrutiny, Ratjen’s remains the only documented case.

Gender tests were discontinued after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and rightly so. In modern athletics it would be impossible to get away with gender fraud.

But last week the practice was clumsily revived when the International Associationof Athletics Federations (IAAF) ordered Caster Semenya, who won the women’s 800 metres at the World Championships in Berlin, to undergo a series of gender verification tests. Strangely, this is not because the IAAF suspects Semenya is a man. Instead, it says it is concerned that she has a rare medical

Gender bending the rules

EDITORIAL

condition that gives her an unfair advantage.The decision is hard to fathom. Even if

Semenya turns out to have a gender disorder such as androgen insensitivity, it should not prevent her from competing as a woman (see page 10). And if she has a medical condition that gives her an advantage, so what? We don’t stop athletes competing with each other on the basis of inborn biological differences such as height or their proportion of fast and slow muscle fibres, nor as a result of medical history. Lance Armstrong lost a testicle to cancer therapy but that did not stop him from competing in – and repeatedly winning – the

Tour de France, even though it may have given him a competitive advantage by altering his testosterone levels.

As more women are encouraged to compete at international level, it is increasingly likely that genetic outliers capable of astonishing performances will be identified and nurtured. Semenya appears to fall into that category. Indeed, female athletes are closing the gap on their male counterparts – though Semenya’s winning time would not have got her past the heats in the men’s race.

Casting doubt on an athlete’s integrity is humiliating enough, but asking a woman to prove her gender in the global media spotlight is worse. It is little better than asking women to parade naked in front of a panel of doctors – a practice which used to be routine for female athletes, but is now thankfully consigned to the history books. ■

Forcing a champion athlete to prove she is a woman is a humiliating waste of time

What’s hot on NewScientist.com

AIR travel was once too expensive for all but the very rich. Now, thanks to low-cost carriers, it is sometimes the cheapest way to get from A to B. Could a similar revolution occur in fertility treatment? Two outfits have stripped IVF down to its bare essentials with the aim of making it affordable for African couples (see page 8). By relying on generic drugs and simple equipment, they plan to offer the procedure for about $350 per course, a fraction of the $12,000 it can cost in the west. The efforts are to be applauded, but they also raise an important question: why should IVF cost so much for anyone, anywhere? Many western couples miss out on having children because they cannot afford IVF. Now that we know it is possible, no-frills IVF should be a priority for clinics everywhere, not just in Africa. ■

A no-frills revolution for fertility treatment

Here’s a red-hot tip

NEXT time you’re in a pressure situation – a job interview or exam, for example – check your surroundings carefully. Is the interviewer wearing a red tie? Are you using a red pen? If so, you should be on red alert: psychologists have discovered that exposure to red can intimidate you into a bad performance (see page 42). It’s not clear whether being aware of this banishes red’s ill effects, but why not turn it to your advantage? If you’re facing a showdown, wear something red. It might give you the edge. ■

“Even if Semenya turns out to have a gender disorder, that should not prevent her competing as a woman”

29 August 2009 | NewScientist | 5

SPACE Saturn moon’s lake: it’s

great for rock-skimming The

largest lake on Titan is mirror-smooth,

varying in height by less than

3 millimetres, new radar observations

show. Seasonal changes may explain

why it is so flat

PHYSICS Disrupt emergency exits

to boost evacuation rates When

a packed room has a narrow exit

door, people will get out faster if an

obstacle is placed in front of the door,

physicists have shown

TECH Magic ink offers

full-colour printing in an

instant An ink that produces colour

in the same way birds and insects

do could be used as the basis of a

superfast full-colour printer. See our

video of M-ink in action

SPACE Space station science,

past, present and future We

look at the highs and lows of science

on the International Space Station,

the $100 billion outpost dismissed by

some as an “orbital turkey”

REPRODUCTION Human sex

from the inside out

Intercourse as you’ve never seen it

before: we present the first video of a

couple having sex in an MRI scanner.

Made from a series of images captured

during an experiment some years ago,

it has only just been released

BLOG The perfect David

Bowie song? A linguistic

analysis by a health psychologist of

all the 266 songs recorded by David

Bowie has produced what he claims

to be the “ideal” Bowie song. Now he

has released it on video, so why not

judge for yourself?

TECH Ultra-pod transport

Driverless electric pod-cars will

soon be zipping passengers from the

car park at London Heathrow to the

airport’s newest terminal. The Ultra

personal rapid transit (PRT) system is

a world first

For breaking news, video and online

debate, visit www.newscientist.com