Sex testing has been done as recently as the Atlanta Olympic games in 1996, but is no longer practised, having been officially stopped by the International Olympic Committee in 1999. This followed a resolution passed at the 1996 International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Conference on Women and Health "to discontinue the current process of gender verification during the Olympic Games." [4]
New rules permit transsexual athletes to compete in the Olympics after having completed sex reassignment surgery, being legally recognized as a member of the target sex, and having undergone two years of hormonal therapy (unless they changed gender before puberty). [5] These controversies continue with the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. [6]
The International Association of Athletics Federations ceased gender screening for all athletes in 1992, [7] but retains the option of assessing the gender of a participant should suspicions arise. This was invoked for the first time in August 2009 with the mandated testing of South African athlete Caster Semenya. [8]