When in Doubt- international athletic competitions and intersexuality: Edinanci Fernandes da Silva
Edinanci Fernandes da Silva (born in 1976) is a Brazilian judoka from São Paulo. She
has represented Brazil so far three times in the Summer Olympics, beginning in 1996. She also won the gold medal in the half heavyweight division at the Pan American Games. She was born with one of many conditions classified under the umbrella term “intersex conditions” (literally being ‘between the societally recognized sexes’), which affect about 1 in 1000 people, and can occur as a result of chromosomes, hormones, internal sex organs and/or external sex organs.
Edinanci Silva received surgery in the 1990’s in order to compete legally and live as a woman. Whatever an individual’s personal choices are about surgery- I believe that it should be just that— a personal choice, made in adulthood, with informed consent.
It could be that major athletic competitions have taken things too far for athletes like da Silva. For the Beijing Olympics, officials worked for more than a year to design laboratory tests to arbitrarily force competitors whose “sex is in doubt” to submit to a series of invasive and often unwanted tests to verify that they may compete as women or men. The testing this past summer clearly targeted athletes competing in the women’s divisions who were ‘suspect’ for being ‘too strong’. This testing is inherently unfair for a variety of reasons—not the least of which is for the protection and security of those intersexual athletes who wish to compete. If you are not traditionally sexed (i.e. if you are not clearly biologically male or female, or have biological characteristics of both), the tests will inevitably show some differences—thereby subjecting these athletes to the harsh eye of the media and to possible disqualification for nothing more than a characteristic of their biological body. Because intersex conditions can display with such variety hormonally, chromosomally, and physically, athletes who are tested may not even know that they have such a condition, having lived their entire lives as one sex or the other.
In the 2004 Olympics, Edinanci Silva was subject to such a test, and she passed. Suspicion, but not the media’s eye, was removed from her. This strong athlete represented her country for years, but was only allowed to do so after her surgery. Even years after, competitors beaten by da Silva routinely refer to her with masculine pronouns, showing ignorance and disrespect for intersexual persons.
Other athletes, with no prior knowledge of their condition, have in the past been stripped of their medals and subjected to harsh criticism by the media and by the very countries they represent proudly. Santhi Soundarajan, a 27-year old Indian athlete, was stripped of a silver medal for the 800m at the Asian games in 2006 after ‘failing’ a test comprised of physical examinations, endocrinological tests, psychological tests, and genetic tests due to a condition called “androgen insensitivity syndrome”. She has lived and identified as female for her entire life, and was reported in September to have attempted suicide due to her public and national humiliation, caused by the blatant ignorance about intersexuality displayed by many international competitive athletic games.
Check out this video showing some of Edinanci Silva's martial artistry!
Edinanci Fernandes da Silva (born in 1976) is a Brazilian judoka from São Paulo. She
has represented Brazil so far three times in the Summer Olympics, beginning in 1996. She also won the gold medal in the half heavyweight division at the Pan American Games. She was born with one of many conditions classified under the umbrella term “intersex conditions” (literally being ‘between the societally recognized sexes’), which affect about 1 in 1000 people, and can occur as a result of chromosomes, hormones, internal sex organs and/or external sex organs.Edinanci Silva received surgery in the 1990’s in order to compete legally and live as a woman. Whatever an individual’s personal choices are about surgery- I believe that it should be just that— a personal choice, made in adulthood, with informed consent.
It could be that major athletic competitions have taken things too far for athletes like da Silva. For the Beijing Olympics, officials worked for more than a year to design laboratory tests to arbitrarily force competitors whose “sex is in doubt” to submit to a series of invasive and often unwanted tests to verify that they may compete as women or men. The testing this past summer clearly targeted athletes competing in the women’s divisions who were ‘suspect’ for being ‘too strong’. This testing is inherently unfair for a variety of reasons—not the least of which is for the protection and security of those intersexual athletes who wish to compete. If you are not traditionally sexed (i.e. if you are not clearly biologically male or female, or have biological characteristics of both), the tests will inevitably show some differences—thereby subjecting these athletes to the harsh eye of the media and to possible disqualification for nothing more than a characteristic of their biological body. Because intersex conditions can display with such variety hormonally, chromosomally, and physically, athletes who are tested may not even know that they have such a condition, having lived their entire lives as one sex or the other.
In the 2004 Olympics, Edinanci Silva was subject to such a test, and she passed. Suspicion, but not the media’s eye, was removed from her. This strong athlete represented her country for years, but was only allowed to do so after her surgery. Even years after, competitors beaten by da Silva routinely refer to her with masculine pronouns, showing ignorance and disrespect for intersexual persons.
Other athletes, with no prior knowledge of their condition, have in the past been stripped of their medals and subjected to harsh criticism by the media and by the very countries they represent proudly. Santhi Soundarajan, a 27-year old Indian athlete, was stripped of a silver medal for the 800m at the Asian games in 2006 after ‘failing’ a test comprised of physical examinations, endocrinological tests, psychological tests, and genetic tests due to a condition called “androgen insensitivity syndrome”. She has lived and identified as female for her entire life, and was reported in September to have attempted suicide due to her public and national humiliation, caused by the blatant ignorance about intersexuality displayed by many international competitive athletic games.
Check out this video showing some of Edinanci Silva's martial artistry!
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