Boasting a career total of 28 Olympic medals, Michael Phelps has earned his reputation as the most decorated Olympian in history. In addition to the tremendous hard work and dedication he has applied throughout his illustrious career as a professional swimmer, Phelps also possesses many natural advantages that have facilitated his success. For example, Phelps is 6 feet and 4 inches tall, and his arms span 3 inches greater than his height. Typically, human arm spans are equal or less than one’s body height, but Phelps’s exceptional wingspan provides him with an enhanced degree of pulling power in the water, as his disproportionately long arms serve as powerfully propulsive paddles.
Phelps’ physical prowess exceeds his mechanical advantages. When humans exercise, their bodies create lactic acid, which contributes to tiredness and decelerates muscle contraction. Researchers have proven that Phelps’s body naturally produces half the amount of lactic acid as his competitors, which enables him to engage in continuous, strenuous physical activity with substantially less recovery time. Even though Phelps’s naturally occurring bodily differences offer him a significant advantage in the world of competitive swimming, the Olympic committee still allowed him to compete at five games over the course of 16 years with no regulations or penalties for his natural edge.
While Phelps is rightly perceived as one of the world’s greatest athletes and applauded for his abilities, the Olympic committee has simultaneously discriminated against several talented Black female athletes for having similarly formidable physical abilities facilitated by their naturally occurring bodily differences.
Black women in elite athletics frequently experience severe discrimination in how others perceive their physical prowess. Their strengths are viewed as threatening anomalies that must be regulated, while white male athletes like Phelps are praised for their natural physical traits. One of the most prominent ways that this double standard manifests is through scientifically unfounded, arbitrary restrictions placed on Black female athletes’ testosterone levels.
In 2011, Annet Negesa, a champion runner from eastern Uganda, was named “Athlete of the Year.” Recognized internationally for her formidable abilities, Negesa seemed primed for a life of athletic stardom. However, her Olympic dreams were brought to a screeching halt in August of that year after she was asked to submit to blood tests at the World Championships. Negesa never got her test results back, so she continued her intense preparation for the London 2012 Summer Olympics without them. In Europe, mere weeks prior to the Games, Negesa learned that she was no longer allowed to compete because her blood samples indicated that her testosterone levels were considered “too high” by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
This pattern of discriminatory double standards transcends national boundaries. In 2013, Kenyan runner Maximila Imali was also arbitrarily restricted by testosterone-related IAAF regulations. In high school, after learning that athletic success could help lift her family out of poverty, Imali engaged in intensive exercise and training to qualify for the World Junior Championships in Oregon. Imali was extremely successful within her heats, but she fell short of victory in the 800-meter finals. Though disappointed with this outcome, Imali continued her training while caring for her mother, her two siblings, and two orphans she was raising. “I just wanted to run good, so that I can feed them,” Imali said. “I was so motivated.” Soon after she garnered international attention as an up-and-coming runner, the IAAF asked her to submit to a blood test, after which she was informed that she could no longer compete in the women’s 800-meter due to her naturally occurring levels of testosterone exceeding the IAAF’s arbitrary limits.
Though these discriminatory regulations purportedly apply to all female athletes worldwide, they have been predominantly enforced to penalize Black women, such as South African Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya. Semenya is currently fighting to compete in the 800-meter before the European Court of Human Rights because she refused to medically lower her testosterone levels. In 2019, World Athletics prohibited female athletes that have certain natural differences of sex development from participating in international women’s middle-distance races if they did not undergo invasive medical interventions to reduce their naturally occurring bodily testosterone levels within the prescribed “normal” limit. Yet, during Phelps’s decades-long athletic career, he never faced any mandate for medical intervention to diminish his atypical, but natural, bodily advantages. While Semenya is punished as if she were a freak of nature, Phelps is celebrated as a sterling wunderkind.
The double standards that Black women face in elite athletics extend far beyond measurable biological differences in their testosterone levels. International athletic committees often impose insidious, subjective rules that inhibit the success of Black female athletes who exhibit strong physical prowess. This year, Simone Biles, a five-time Olympic medalist, faced a familiar barrier frequently encountered by Black female athletes: she was targeted for her unrivaled physical abilities. The International Gymnastics Federation recently announced that it will be instituting unique restrictions to Biles’ potential point tabulations to discourage her opponents from taking dangerous risks to have a chance at competing with her. “I’m almost 99.9% sure if any other athlete were to do it besides me, they would give it correct credit,” Biles commented about the new regulations. Biles’ hard work and natural athletic talents have molded her into a world-renowned, dominant competitor, but the IGF implemented discriminatory scoring restrictions puts Biles at a disadvantage relative to the scoring she deserves.
Biles’ situation is reminiscent of Surya Bonaly, a Black female figure skater, who experienced similar underscoring penalties from Olympic judges after she landed an unprecedented backflip on the ice during the 1998 Games. These limitations represent another iteration of the long-standing double standard of young Black women facing discriminatory regulations from international athletic bodies due to their naturally occurring physical aptitudes.
This year, international athletics’ racial and gender-based double standards could not be starker. No Black woman should have her Olympic career crushed and her life aspirations derailed by discriminatory rules rooted in unproven pseudoscience. No athlete, regardless of race or gender identity, should ever be penalized or discriminated against for differences that occur naturally within their bodies.
With the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in full swing and numerous notable Black women sidelined, the Olympic committee and all international athletic bodies must take swift action to abolish their discriminatory health regulations and all arbitrary rules that baselessly disadvantage Black female athletes. On the heels of an international movement for racial justice, the Olympic committee has a rare opportunity to champion equality and inclusion by ensuring fair treatment for some of the world’s greatest athletes on an international stage — a monumental first step to rectify decades of discrimination.
Image Credit: Photo by Nicolas Hoizey is licensed under the Unsplash license.
