Foekje Dillema
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 Foekje Dillema, practising her start on August 20, 1949 in London. |
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 26, 1926 Burum, Netherlands |
| Died | December 5, 2007 (aged 81) Kollum, Netherlands |
| Sport | |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Sport | Women's athletics |
| Retired | July 13, 1950 |
Foekje Dillema, (18 September 1926 – 5 December 2007) was a Dutch track and field athlete.
Dillema was named "athlete of the match" in 1949 after winning the 100 metres and 200 metres race during a tournament in London. She was an important rival for another Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won four gold medals during the 1948 Summer Olympics and was voted "Female Athlete of the Century" by the IAAF in 1999.
In 1950 Dillema was expelled for life by the Dutch National Athletics Federation. Dillema had refused to go to a manadtory sex test. Her national record of 24.1 seconds for the 200 metres was erased,[1] a decision that is still discussed in the Netherlands. On the 13th of July 1950 Foekje Dillema was stopped on her way to an international meeting in France by the Dutch Athletics authorities and expelled for life from competition. Foekje returned back home to Friesland did not leave her house for at least one year. She lived a quiet life in her home town afterwards and always refused to speak on the subject.
Dillema was considered female at birth, raised as a girl and lived her life as a woman. Her brothers and sisters never expected her not to be a woman having seen her so many times in the bathtub (her phenotype was female).
After her death a forensic test on body cells obtained from her clothing found that there was a Y-chromosome in her DNA. She might have been a genetic mosaic, having cells with either 46,XX (female) or 46,XY (male) chromosomes, in approximately a one-to-one ratio, in her skin. The forensic report speculated that Foekje developed from a zygote with an XXY genotype that promptly divided into a half XX, half XY embryo through nondisjunction. Professor Anton Grootegoed of the Erasmus MC concluded based on the analyses and on what he had read about Foekje, that Foekje Dillema was female. This means that she would be allowed to race, if she were competing today.[2]
Her biographer Max Dohle however concludes that Foekje, having a Y-chromosome would never have been allowed to race in the last 45 years. The Barr body test (1966) as well as the test based on PCR (1992) scan for a Y-chromosome or an SRY-gene on the Y-chromosome. All female athletes with a Y-chromosome were expelled from competition from 1966 until 2011. At the end of the century, renowned institutions worldwide protested against the viewpoint of the International Olympic Committee, causing the mandatory gender test based on the Y chromosome to be abandoned. In case of doubt an athlete can still be tested, by a multidisciplinary medical team, during a large tournament like The Olympic Games. The IAAF tests on testosterone levels since May 2011.
Dohle concludes that Dillema was an intersex suffering from ovotesticular DSD, also known as true hermaphroditism: 46XX/46XY. She had an operation on her glands in 1952. The SRY-gene on the Y is the testis determining factor, so Foekje may have had infertile testes or ovotestes palpable in her groins. These (ovo)testes produce more testosterone than ovaries. Higher testosterone levels are considered as unfair towards the competition.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Farndale, Nigel (25 October 2009). "Athletics: Caster Semenya the latest female athlete suspected of being biological male". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/sport/sportslife/6414523/Athletics-Caster-Semenya-the-latest-female-athlete-suspected-of-being-biological-male.html. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
- ^ Foekje was a woman (NOS newscast)
- Dohle, M. (2008) Het verwoeste leven van Foekje Dillema: de grootste tragedie uit de Nederlandse sportgeschiedenis, Arbeiderspers, ISBN 9789029566872
[edit] External links
- (Dutch) Article
- Foekje Dillema tribute
