If you're ever confused, the Olympics Commitee will help you out

In feeble attempts to calm myself from flipping out over the imminent demise of the human race, I've stuffed myself with virtual ice-cream, staring all day Michael Phelps. Did you know he's double-jointed? Wonder if all his bones are double-jointed, eh? Apparently, his physical abnormalities (some say abnormal, I say hot) are well-known to have given him an advantage as a swimmer, allowing him to make Olympic history.

Now as much as I love Michael Phelps, I'm going to have to use him as a political point here. This double-jointedness and bodily abnormalities shit - all new news to me. But you know what's not new? The fact that the Olympic Committee created a gender determination lab to determine if women atheletes were really women. No male athletes were tested. For the sake of actually using the globs of cashmoney I spent to get my Philosophy degree, let's try to follow their logic. Understandably, they don't want to give any of the athletes an unfair advantage. The assumption is being male gives the athletes an advantage (regardless of type of sport - remember what we learned in gym class? Women have better endurance) and that they are in the right to disqualify any player with an unfair advantage. But if you apply these rules to Michael Phelps, shouldn't he be disqualified as well? He has a physical abnormality that clearly gives him an advantage over other swimmers. Testing positiviely has male because of chromosomal variance does not give female athletes any clear obvious advantages.

In the 2006 Asian games, Santhi Soundarajan, a middle distance runner, was stripped of her silver medal after failing to test postiviely as a woman (according to the qualifications of "female" from the International Olympic Committee). Afterwards, several articles stated that she is intersexed. Something, like Michael Phelps, that she had no control over. Why is the Olympics commitee taking such a strong interest in female gender and trying to figure out exactly what females are? If the reason really is to remove any unfair advantages, then Michael Phelps clearly violated that rule. What's disturbing is the large international institutions are still fumbling with understanding anything outside the straight male model.

An Olympic Quickie

A few days ago we wrote about some hunky brown athletes competing in Beijing at this year's Olympics. Turns out that boxer-turned-model, Vijendar Kumar, has won the bronze in the sport's middleweight division. And, my, does he look fine. Does anyone else see Bollywood in his near future?

An Olympic Treat

Now that the media's Phelps Phever has been settling down, Queeristan wants to take a glance at a few brown Olympians who can match Phelp's charm and err...physique.


Abhinav Bindra may look like the typical Indian-next-door, but his gold medal in shooting earned him a place in history as well as face-time during his country's independance day celebrations. While Bindra may not look identical to Phelps in low-rise swimming trucks, his modesty and solid character are definately his charms.



I'm surprised US gymnast, Raj Bhavsar, has not been getting more screentime at these Olympics. Bhavsar missed making the US team in both 2004 and 2008, securing instead the alternate position. After Paul Hamm's injury barred him from the games, Bhavsar was called in, and boy did he shine. The men's gymnastic team earned a bronze medal after a practically flawless performance by Bhavsar. A South Asian American, Raj has got some interesting stuff to say about the ups and downs of his carreer.

Good looking AND a good heart, what a combo!




And last, but not least, I'm keeping our eyes on boxer, Vijender Kumar. Kumar has made it to the quarterfinals for the middleweight category; he will play Carlos Gongora of Equador on Wednesday. He is a boxer by day, but Kumar is a model by night. Featured in India's Maxim and other magazines, Vijender's killer looks may pack more than his killer punch. Kumar, however, has clear goals -- he wants to fight in Madison Square Garden and to be promoted by none other than Don King.