Su’s Story
A s far back as I can remember, I knew I was different from my peers. In grade school, I was much thinner than the other boys, I didn’t have the muscle mass they had, I wasn’t any good at sports, and I just assumed there was something wrong with me. When I was 15, I found out I had Klinefelter Syndrome, which is a difference in sexual development (DSD) that occurs when a male is born with (at least) one extra X chromosome. My doctor explained that because of this combination, my body makes less testosterone, and therefore I have less muscle mass. In the future, I may not be able to have kids, and at some point, I might develop breasts. But he also mentioned that my condition was not life threatening, so I decided against getting hormone shots.
In my early 30s, I started running long distances. I had run for many years prior, but never more than 20 miles (32 km) in a week. After completing my first ultra-marathon, which was a 36-mile (58 km) trail race in Vermont, I discovered that I loved these ridiculously long races. So, I started doing them more and more.
Ultra-marathons, like most sports, are separated into categories of male and female. This separation is made so that when a person is competing, they are doing so against others of their own sex. But where does this leave intersex people like myself whose differences in sexual development make such categorization unclear?
Currently, those with DSD must choose between one sex category or the other, which often leads to added stress that someone (i.e. a race official) might challenge this decision. To address the problem, I think sport should strive to be more inclusive of intersex people by establishing a third category of competition. Certainly, this would present some new challenges (such as how to handle the placement of individuals into this category), but if it helps us achieve greater equality and inclusion in sport, developing fair solutions to meet these challenges would be worth it.
For more about Su, check out her blog or follow her on Instagram.
Artist Notes
“This illustration features Su running in the misty mountains. Light green and dark green are the only two colours in the image, which represents the two sex categories male and female that intersex people feel caught between when competing in most sports. The mist in the mountains symbolise the challenges related to inclusivity in the sports world that Su talks about in her story.”
Published Jul 1, 2020
Updated Oct 26, 2022
Published in Issue VII: Sports