At the 2012 London Olympics, Gabby Douglas made history as the first Black gymnast to win a gold medal in the individual all-around event. She also won gold in the team event with the “Fierce Five,” making them the first American team since 1996 to win. Even though Douglas was beyond successful that summer, online trolls took to Twitter to comment on her hair rather than on her gold-medal-winning performance. They referred to Douglas’s pulled-back ponytail as “unkempt” and “embarrassing.” The 16-year-old had to endure racist critiques of her hair—critiques which were based on western beauty standards. In response, Douglas stood up for herself saying: “I just made history and people are focused on my hair? It can be bald or short; it doesn't matter about (my) hair.” she said. Gendered and racist criticism Black women face is particularly vicious, as Zirin points out, and that Black male athletes—let alone white and other non-Black athletes, of any gender—are far less likely to be criticized for their hair.

 

This year, anti-Black hair bias has surfaced again around Soul Caps, a professional swim cap designed specifically for afro-textured hair, which the International Swimming Federation rejected for use at the Tokyo Olympics.

As a young eighteen-year-old, South African runner Caster Semenya set a world record in the 800-meter sprint at the 2009 African Junior Championships. This success, however, launched a long, ill-conceived and discriminatory process of analyzing Semenya’s gender using biological testing. Even though it is normal for hormone levels to vary from person to person, when it was reported that Semenya, who is a cisgender intersex woman, had testosterone levels about three times higher than the “average” woman, the public and athletic organizations critiqued her femininity and discussed whether she should be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Abusive regulations demanded that Semenya chemically lower her testosterone levels in order to compete, which she adhered to from 2010 to 2015 by taking birth control pills. As a result, she experienced abdominal pain, high fevers, and other symptoms. In the London and Rio Olympics, Semenya won the gold medal but she has been in constant strife with the IAAF. Zirin argues that her story reflects the limited understanding of gender in athletic institutions: “What these officials still don’t understand, or confront, is that gender… is a remarkably fluid social construction. Even our physical sex is far more ambiguous than is often imagined or taught.” In 2020, Semenya announced her plans to challenge the World Athletics’s hormone policies in the European Court of Human Rights. Semenya will not be competing in the Tokyo Olympics, and while some governing bodies, like U.S. Gymnastics have introduced policies that are inclusive of intersex, trans, and nonbinary athletes, other organizations, like World Rugby, have leaned into hormone-based bans.