At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Dora Ratjen competed in the women's high jump. In 1957 Ratjen came forward with an incredible account: he was in fact a man (named Hermann) who had been forced by the Nazi Youth Movement to masquerade as a woman in an attempt to steal a medal in the games. Alas, the ploy failed -- when Ratjen placed fourth.

[In 1966, Olympic judges began checking female athletes for such sexual abnormalities as overlarge clitorises, a penis and testicles. By 1968, chromosome testing replaced such "nude parades," and in 1992, more sophisticated genetic testing was adopted. Nonetheless confusion abounded: Of 2,406 women tested in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, five were deemed to be "male". By the 1996 Atlanta games, the number had risen to eight.]

[According to Dartmouth College Professor Jeremy Rutter, Olympic authorities tried to crack down on cheating as early as the fourth century BC. "Athletes who cheated were forced to buy bronze statues of Zeus and inscribe them with maxims expressing their regret." These statues were then placed in public view along the route to the stadium.]