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.

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

Personal life

See also

References

External links