Female volleyball star withdraws after threat of controversial gender test

The FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship is currently being held in Thailand, but one team has found itself on the wrong end of the direction some in sports want to go.

Vietnam entered the tournament as the 22nd ranked team in the world, but was coming off an upset in Women’s Southeast Asia League tournament play two weeks ago. Vietnam broke a 40-match losing skid to perennial regional power Thailand with a win in five sets, sparked by the play of 25-year-old outside hitter Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen, who was named MVP for the four-team tourney.

“The achievement of the SEA V League Round 2 championship is proof of endless effort and is the dream come true,” Tuyen said on her Facebook. “The historic victory against Thailand will be the best memory of Tuyen’s career.”

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She also announced that she would withdraw from the World Championship due to concerns over the FIVB’s regulations regarding eligibility and threats that her gender would be challenged.

“I feel these regulations lack transparency and do not provide the fairness athletes deserve,” she wrote. “Every athlete deserves to compete in an environment that is respectful and equal. To protect my integrity and avoid unnecessary risks for the team, I have decided to step back.”

Disqualifications at Under-21 worlds affected this decision

Vietnam’s Under-21 team reached the knockout round of the U21 World Championship in Indonesia that ended earlier in the month. Two members of the team, including one of the top overall scorers in the tourney, were disqualified for reasons the FIVB didn’t disclose, but reporters stated it was due to both athletes failing a sex verification test.

The team was stripped of three pool wins, and the Vietnam Volleyball Federation faced a stiff fine that it has protested.

According to a report from VN Express, VFV officials questioned the secretive nature of the inquiry and the severity of the penalty given a less-than-one-day investigation. “What is the basis for FIVB to issue additional regulations and sanction Vietnamese athletes?,” one official asked in the report.

FIVB general regulations say that initial determinations are done by checking the birth certificates of each player provided by individual national federations. Any athlete requesting a gender change is evaluated by an FIVB Gender Statute Committee on a case-by-case basis. The athlete must prove they do not have a competitive advantage.

In a situations regarding differences in sexual development, a verification process can be initiated via official request. It was reported that a request came from an opposing team.

Media in Vietnam pointed the finger at rival Thailand, and reported that Thai officials had openly called for gender testing at the upcoming championships in their country. The SEA V League result for Vietnam leading into it, where Tuyen had a dominant performance, led rival Thai star Pimpichaya Kokram to clapback at a Vietnam fan via social media by writing “but I am a real woman,” in reference to Vietnam’s dominant outside hitter.

Tuyen latest caught in sex testing crossfire

In the middle of this lies Tuyen, who has been a target of the barbs fans and reporters for her angular 6-foot, 2-inch frame, as much as her seismic spikes that help put her club team, LP Bank Ninh Binh, in the FIVB World Cup Championship last year and earned her MVP honors at 2024’s FIVB Challenger Cup where Vietnam finished a surprising third.

She has also been the target of fans and reporters who have openly questioned her gender.

“A lot of fans defend Bich Tuyen because she’s seen as national pride and one of the best volleyball players Vietnam has ever had,” a fan of Vietnam’s team, who asked for anonymity, told Outsports, “but others are really dismissive, even calling her a shame.

“They bully her to look ‘more feminine,’ and some people, not just opponents, accuse her of being a ‘biological man pretending to be a woman.'”

There is also a matter of the testing mechanism itself. The SRY gene test being used by sports governing bodies was called into question earlier this month by Dr. Andrew Sinclair, the scientist who first discovered the gene in 1990. He said that complexities of determining biological sex and logistics involved in administering the test opens the door to errors.

“I, along with many other experts, persuaded the International Olympic Committee to drop the use of SRY for sex testing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics,” Sinclair told the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute on Aug. 5. “It is therefore very surprising that, 25 years later, there is a misguided effort to bring this test back. Given all the problems outlined, the SRY gene should not be used to exclude women athletes from competition.”

The organizers of the Asian Games say they are considering a full sex testing mandate for their next competition. On Sept. 1, the World Athletics mandate begins for every women’s qualifier for their upcoming world championships.

Tuyen now joins athletes such as Caster Semenya, Imane Khelif and Barbra Banda among the talented athletes in the shadow of a new era where sports is entering an uncertain future.

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