The Sunday Story: The History of Sex Testing in Sports : Up First

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. A Martinez speaks with Rose Eveleth, the host of a new podcast series called Tested from NPR’s Embedded and CBC in Canada, which traces the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing in elite sports.

The series follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. They face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight.

This episode was produced by Andrew Mambo with help from Rhaina Cohen and edited by Liana Simstrom with help from Alison MacAdam. Our engineers were James Willitts and Patrick Murray.

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