About this podcast
Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. To understand how we got here, Host Rose Eveleth (they/them) traces the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing.
Episodes
- Tested Introduces: The Most Wanted Olympian · 38 minHow did a small town Canadian boy allegedly become a narco kingpin? Ryan Wedding was once a promising young athlete, a snowboarder who went all the way to the Olympics. Now…
- Episode 6: Lumpers and Splitters · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 6Christine and Max are some of the most recent female athletes in this century-long history to face tests, stigma, and restrictions. But they are unlikely to be the last. In this…
- Episode 5: Unfair Advantage? · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 5A battle over science and ethics unfolds. World Athletics releases and then tweaks multiple policies impacting DSD athletes, while critics cry foul. In this episode, World…
- Episode 4: Running In Circles · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 4In 2009, South African sprinter Caster Semenya won gold at the World Championships. But instead of a celebration, she endured endless speculation about her body, her biology, and…
- Episode 3: Card-Carrying Females · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 3We meet Kenyan sprinter Maximila Imali, who—like Christine—has been sidelined by DSD policies. She makes a different choice from Christine: to fight the regulations in court. And…
- Episode 2: Questions of a Physical Nature · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 2We go back to the beginnings of women’s inclusion in elite sports. It turns out that men had an odd variety of concerns about women athletes. Some doubted these athletes were…
- Episode 1: The Choice · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 1Would you alter your body for the chance to compete for a gold medal? That’s the question facing a small group of elite athletes right now. Last year, track and field authorities…
- Introducing: Tested · 3 min · Season 1Since the very beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle to define who, exactly, gets to compete in the women’s category. A century later, this struggle is still…
