The Spanish “Semenya case” that angered Franco – Spain’s News

Testosterone, sexual identity or the incorporation of transsexuals into the female categories are part of a battle in sport that has lasted for years and that seems to find no way out. Yesterday the first judicial victory for the South African athlete Caster Semenya was known. After five years fighting in court to avoid undergoing hormonal treatment imposed by the International Athletics Federation (IAAF at the time, now WA), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or Strasbourg Court) ruled yesterday in favor of Semenya .

The WA banned Semenya from competing in 800-1500 meters unless she underwent hormone treatment. Strasbourg has considered that said prohibition was “discriminatory by sex” for being intersex and having high testosterone levels. The hormonal treatments that were imposed on the athlete to be able to compete could be detrimental to her health, one of the reasons why Semenya refused to undergo them. Taken away from the tracks to focus on her court battle, she has scored her first victory in court. Someone who does not share World Athletics who was quick to reaffirm that try to “protect fair competition in women’s sports”.

Another similar case is that of the Zambian captain, Barbra Banda, whose sexual identity is under suspicion. The controversy comes from the fact that the soccer player will be able to play the women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, despite being banned from the 2022 African Cup of Nations a year ago due to a high level of testosterone and having previously failed a test to define her gender. The real Madrid He came to rule out his signing when he doubted if it was really a woman.

The Spanish Semenya case

However The debate between sexual identity and sport is not new and Spain already had its own “Semenya case” in the early 1940s. The case of María Torremadé, a great figure in women’s sports in post-war Spain, led Pilar Primo de Rivera, National Delegate of the Franco regime’s Women’s Section, to prohibit the practice of athletics for women for more than 20 years.

a revolutionary athlete

Jordi Torremadé Martínez (Barcelona, ​​January 9, 1923 – November 2, 1990) was an athlete who changed sex in 1941 and broke records in Spain for women’s athletics where he was unrivaled at the time. He revolutionized Spanish athletics due to his unprecedented marks.

Born with the name of María, in the Guinardó neighborhood, no one noticed that he had Morris Syndrome, an intersex condition, and that is why he was raised as a girl and lived as a woman until he was 19 years old, at which point he changed of genre.

Maria soon became fond of sports, she practiced basketball, field hockey and athletics with profit. She stood out in all of them, especially in the latter. Between 1940 and 1942 his marks were spectacular: in 60 meters he did 7,710, which was the best European record. In that same distance he was four tenths of the world record. She was the Spanish champion of 100 meters, 200, 800, high jump and long jump. A prodigy. And all before the age of twenty. Her successes were such that she came to be received by Lluís Companys.

He also competed, and used to win, in long-distance events, in throws… He was a total machine but with a problem: He was a man in a woman’s body.

Morris syndrome

In 1942, at the age of 19, María changed her name to the Civil Registry by that of Jordi after a genital adequacy intervention. His athletics career was cut short and his marks disappeared from official records.

In an interview published by “Mundo Deportivo” in 1982, he stated: “Mine was a clinical case with a wrong initial diagnosis. Hence, at birth, my condition as a girl was decreed by mistake when, with a simple correction of the congenital anomaly, my condition as a man would have been verified.

Such anomaly responds to the name of Morris Syndrome, also known as androgen insensitivity syndrome or testicular feminization, among others. It occurs when a person with the body of a woman has male genetics, that is, both X chromosome and Y chromosome, but has abnormalities that make it incapable of responding to the hormones that produce a masculine appearance (androgens). As a result, she has the physical appearance of a woman, but the genetic characteristics of a man.

But the thing did not stop there and her case had drastic consequences for Spanish women’s sport. On February 13, 1942, the Madrid newspaper Informaciones brought to light her sex change. “María Torremadé, a well-known Catalan athlete, is going to change her conditions in the Civil Registry, with which she will be dispossessed of the brands and titles won in different athletic events. The record holder is actually a man who has been competing transvestite ”, could be read in the information. Immediately, his marks were invalidated, although he was never officially informed.

Due to the scandal caused by this “sex change”, Pilar Primo de Rivera, in charge of the Women’s Section, excluded athletics from women’s sports because it was considered masculinizing and unfeminine, as was the case with many other sports disciplines. She alleged that this type of sports practices masculinized women, taking them away from their natural function, which was motherhood.

A The circular published in 1943 was quite clear, the Spanish woman “would only practice sports that did not impair her specific function: motherhood”. After 20 years banned, in 1963 due to protests women’s athletics was allowed again.

Jordi Torremadé, who after the sex change continued practicing athletics and was champion of Catalonia in 4×100 m., he married Catalina Pons on August 5, 1952, despite the opposition of his father who disinherited him. He then lived in Paris and Barcelona, ​​where he died on November 3, 1990 due to cardiac arrest.