The assistant professor of sport management's latest research, published in the International Journal of the History of Sport, explores how sport governing bodies have historically sidelined scientific expertise in determining eligibility for women’s competition.
Lindsay Pieper, assistant professor of sport management, has co-authored a new article examining the historical roots of sex testing policies in sport and their continued impact on today’s athletic landscape.
Published in March in the International Journal of the History of Sport, the article, “Testing Boundaries: Claiming Authority of Sex in Sport,” was written in collaboration with Jörg Krieger of Aarhus University.
The research arrives at a moment of renewed global debate. In 2025, World Athletics reinstated sex control policies, and reports suggest the International Olympic Committee (IOC) may consider similar measures. Current verification methods focus on identifying a specific gene to determine eligibility in women’s sport – an approach that has drawn criticism from leading medical experts as both unscientific and unethical.
Pieper and Krieger’s work demonstrates that these tensions are not new.
Drawing on archival research, the authors examine opposition from Danish geneticists and medical professionals in the 1970s, who challenged the IOC’s use of chromosomal testing. In 1972, five Aarhus University professors formally protested the policy, arguing that no single biological criterion could accurately define sex and warning of the harm such practices could cause — particularly for women with differences of sexual development.
Despite acknowledging the scientific limitations, the IOC chose to continue its testing protocols.
“We were unsurprised to find that the IOC ignored the expertise of the Aarhus professors in the 1970s,” Pieper said. “It has a long history of disregarding scientific and medical knowledge that conflicts with its ideas about women’s sport. The consequences are on display today. World Athletics is again ignoring experts, including Andrew Sullivan, who led the team that discovered the gene in question, to enforce gendered categories.”
By tracing this historical pattern, the research argues that sport governing bodies have consistently prioritized rigid biological definitions over evolving scientific understanding — a trend that continues to shape policy decisions today.
Pieper joined Elon in 2025 after 13 years at the University of Lynchburg, where she served as department chair of sport management. She is the author of two books, “Sex Testing: Gender Policing in Women’s Sport” and “Women in the Olympics,” and her scholarship has appeared in journals including Sport in Society and the Journal of Sport History.
The International Journal of the History of Sport is a leading peer-reviewed academic journal published by Taylor & Francis that focuses on the historical study of sport, physical culture and related social issues.