Ewa Janina Kłobukowska (born 1 October 1946) is a Polish former
sprinter. She competed at the
1964 Olympics 1964 Olympics refers to both:
*The 1964 Winter Olympics
The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Ba ...
in the 4×100 m relay and 100 m sprint and won a gold and a bronze medal, respectively.
[Ewa Kłobukowska]
sports-reference.com She also won two gold and one silver medal at the
1966 European Athletics Championships
The 8th European Athletics Championships were held from 30 August to 4 September 1966 in the Stadium Puskás Ferenc, Nép Stadium in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, Hungary. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Hera ...
. Kłobukowska set three world records, one in the 100 m (11.1 s, 9 July 1965 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
) and two in the 4×100 m relay (44.2 s, 13 September 1964,
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
and 43.6 s, 21 October 1964, Tokyo). Kłobukowska was at one point considered to be the fastest woman in the world. The American Press made a statement, saying that nobody would beat Kłobukowska for the next 7-8 years following a race in Prague.
Despite these successes and laurels, her records were annulled by the
International Association of Athletics Federations
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
(IAAF) after a gender identification test in 1967 wrongly labeled her as not female. The test procedures were later found to be inadequate.
[
]
Personal life
Kłobukowska was born in a family of intellectuals. In 1965, she graduated from a Technical School of Economics No. 6 and in 1972 from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics
SGH Warsaw School of Economics ( pl, Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie, ''SGH''[Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...]
in 1967 wrongly identified her as not female, and Kłobukowska was subsequently banned from competing in professional sports. This was surprising considering she passed the nude gender verification test a year prior to this competition. According to the IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
she had "one chromosome too many", likely referring to detection of a Y chromosome in some of her cells. However, had she had been tested one year later at the Mexico Olympics, she would have been eligible on the grounds that she was Barr Body
A Barr body (named after discoverer Murray Barr) or X-chromatin is an inactive X chromosome in a cell with more than one X chromosome, rendered inactive in a process called lyonization, in species with XY sex-determination (including humans ...
(inactive X-chromosome), having a Barr Body in all of her cells. It is considered likely that this is the result of her having an XX/XXY genetic mosaic
Mosaicism or genetic mosaicism is a condition in multicellular organisms in which a single organism possesses more than one genetic line as the result of genetic mutation. This means that various genetic lines resulted from a single fertilized ...
where some of her cells contain XX chromosomes, and other cells contain XXY, a rare intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
condition. Her humiliation led to a change in the gender verification policies by the International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
, which from then on kept test results secret.
IAAF erased the three world records set by Kłobukowska, including the two team records in the 4×100 m relay.[Kłobukowska Ewa]
Polish Olympic Committee
sports-reference.com Even now, there are only a few articles on Kłobukowska because of the erasure of her accomplishments.
Kłobukowska isn't seen in the public eye often because of the controversy.
The reasoning behind this is that it has taken a significant toll on her mental health, almost resulting in suicide.
As of 2017, she had still received no formal apology.
See also
*
Gender verification in sports
Sex verification in sports (also known as gender verification, or loosely as gender determination or a sex test) occurs because eligibility of athletes to compete is restricted whenever sporting events are limited to a single sex, which is gene ...
*
Caster Semenya
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB (born 7 January 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 ...
*
Maria José Martínez-Patiño
Maria José Martínez-Patiño (born 10 July 1961) is a Spanish former hurdler, whose dismissal from the Spanish Olympic team in 1986 for failing the gender test is a notable moment in the history of sex verification in sports.
Martínez-Patiño wa ...
*
Dutee Chand
Dutee Chand (born 3 February 1996) is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition. She is the third Indian woman ...
*
Santhi Soundarajan
Santhi Soundarajan (also spelled ''Shanthi Soundararajan'', ta, சாந்தி சௌந்திரராஜன், born 17 April 1981) is a track and field athlete from Tamil Nadu, India. She is the winner of 12 int ...
*
Stanisława Walasiewicz
Stanisława Walasiewicz (3 April 1911 – 4 December 1980), also known as Stefania Walasiewicz, and Stella Walsh, was a Polish-American track and field athlete, who became a women's Olympic champion in the 100 metres. Born in Poland and raised ...
*
Helen Stephens
Helen Herring Stephens (February 3, 1918 – January 17, 1994) was an American athlete and a double Olympic champion in 1936.
Biography
Stephens, nicknamed the "Fulton Flash" after her birthplace, Fulton, Missouri, was a strong athlete in sprin ...
*
Irena Szewińska
Irena Szewińska (née Kirszenstein; Polish pronunciation: ; 24 May 1946 – 29 June 2018) was a Polish Sprint (running), sprinter who was one of the world's foremost athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events. She is the only athl ...
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klobukowska, Ewa
1946 births
Living people
Intersex sportspeople
Intersex women
Polish female sprinters
Olympic athletes of Poland
Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for Poland
Olympic bronze medalists for Poland
Athletes from Warsaw
Sex verification in sports
European Athletics Championships medalists
Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field)
Skra Warszawa athletes
Olympic female sprinters
SGH Warsaw School of Economics alumni