TOKYO (AP) 鈥 The woman whose genetic test in the 1980s led sports leaders to conclude it was too intrusive, not definitive enough and, ultimately, not worth keeping, said she was faced with 鈥渁 sadness that I could not share鈥 after results from that test upended her life.
The man who discovered the gene that led to that test being developed called it 鈥渟urprising that, 25 years later, there is a misguided effort to bring the test back.鈥
In a recent major policy overhaul, World Athletics brought , requiring any athlete seeking to compete in the female category at world championships, which opened Saturday, to submit to the test by Sept. 1.
The federation portrays implementation of the SRY gene test, designed to detect a 鈥榊鈥 chromosome found in males, as a common-sense approach to tackle an issue that has bedeviled and divided sports for decades. Federation president Seb Coe says the policy is tailored to foster the 鈥減rotection and the promotion of the integrity of women鈥檚 sport.鈥
In a telling indicator of the lack of unanimity around the issue, athletes from France hit roadblocks in meeting the deadline because their country has banned that sort of screening for non-medical purposes. Most were forced to have the test conducted at foreign training sites on their way to Tokyo for the championships.
A day before the championships started, World Athletics said about 95% of female athletes set to compete in Tokyo . Confidentiality rules make it difficult to determine who, if anyone, did not take the test, and if any of those who did have been ruled ineligible.
How one upended an athlete’s world
Issues with this test began decades before this 2025 reboot.
The most notable case involved Spanish hurdler Mar铆a Jos茅 Mart铆nez-Pati帽o, who wrote that she 鈥減assed鈥 her first gender test prior to the 1983 world championships and was given a 鈥淐ertificate of Femininity鈥 that allowed her to compete.
But two years later, she forgot the certificate on her way to the World University Games and was subjected to another test that came back with inconclusive results. Team doctors told her to fake an injury to explain her subsequent absence from the meet.
鈥淚 sat in the stands that day watching my teammates, wondering how my body differed from theirs,鈥 she wrote. 鈥淚 spent the rest of that week in my room, feeling a sadness that I could not share.鈥
Further testing ultimately revealed Mart铆nez-Pati帽o had androgen insensitivity — meaning that though she carried a 鈥淵鈥 chromosome, her body did not respond to testosterone and the hormonal messages it provides to become male.
鈥淚 lost friends, my fianc茅, hope, and energy,鈥 she wrote. 鈥淏ut I knew that I was a woman, and that my genetic difference gave me no unfair physical advantage.鈥
Key scientist questions effectiveness
In part because of the trauma Mart铆nez-Pati帽o endured, medical experts convinced the International Olympic Committee and other sports federations to abandon gene testing. It was gone prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Among those involved in sidelining the test was Andrew Sinclair, the scientist who discovered the gene that results in a positive test for the 鈥淵鈥 chromosome.
His recent detailed the many ways the SRY test can go wrong. One of them is an inability to detect the androgen insensitivity that Martinez-Patino had. In a nod to the Spanish athlete鈥檚 landmark case, World Athletics has for people with 鈥淐omplete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.鈥
But Sinclair outlined other potential difficulties. They could include problems generating accurate lab readings in poorer nations without sophisticated equipment, and that the test is sensitive enough that a male lab technician can inadvertently cause a false result by mishandling it.
鈥淕iven all the problems outlined above, the SRY gene should not be used to exclude women athletes from competition,鈥 Sinclair concluded.
Madeline Pape, a former elite runner who studies gender policies in sports, says 鈥渨hat鈥檚 interesting is the way the sport forgets.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e right back to where we鈥檙e using an archaic technology for defining eligibility for the women鈥檚 category,鈥 she said.
Transgender, DSD athletes under same rules
As part of its rules reset, World Athletics wrote virtually the same guidelines for transgender athletes as for those with differences in sex development (DSD) — two sets of athletes whose issues are often conflated.
DSD athletes were born with a typical male XY chromosome pattern, but identified as female at birth and raised as girls.
While World Athletics acknowledged no transgender females currently compete at the elite international level, it created an exception allowing DSD athletes who had followed previous guidelines, which involved them taking drugs to suppress their testosterone level, to be grandfathered in to future competitions under the old rules.
The exception would not have helped Caster Semenya, the two-time Olympic gold medalist who has DSD and refused to suppress her testosterone. Her long-running case has served as a focal point for the issue of transgender and DSD athletes in track.
Earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights , saying her rights to a fair hearing in her sex-eligibility case were violated, which kept alive the seven-year-old legal struggle for the now 34-year-old champion.
鈥淚 think Caster is, in a lot of ways, the for a lot of this,鈥 said Anna Posbergh, a Florida State researcher who studies gender in sports. 鈥淚 applaud Caster for the strength she鈥檚 had to push back. But I think it was inevitable that at some point, (the test) was going to make a comeback, given the political direction the world seems to be going.鈥
NCAA, USOC fall in line with Trump
In the United States, President Donald Trump titled 鈥淜eeping Men Out of Women鈥檚 Sports鈥 that鈥檚 designed to bar transgender athletes from female sports.
Among those that have fallen in line are , the U.S. and the University of Pennsylvania in a
The new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, ran on seeking clarity on the transgender issue, seconding Coe鈥檚 desire to 鈥減rotect鈥 the female category.
Boxing鈥檚 international federation, after seeing its sport subsumed by this issue at the Paris Games, has as track and field.
Some take test but have reservations
One of America鈥檚 most outspoken athletes on the topic of gender in sports is U.S. 1,500-meter champion Nikki Hiltz. Hiltz was assigned female at birth and came out as transgender and non-binary in 2021. Hiltz called sex testing 鈥渁 slippery slope.鈥
鈥淥bviously, I鈥檓 gonna do it. I鈥檓 not gonna, like, protest it or anything. I just don鈥檛 like the precedent that it sets,鈥 Hiltz said.
Faith Kipyegon, the 1,500-meter world-record holder and three-time Olympic gold medalist, said there鈥檚 no use trying to fight World Athletics over the test.
鈥淭his is a new thing,鈥 she said, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e all going to have to face it.鈥
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