The first hurdle facing female athletes in next month’s Olympics will be proving they are women. Beijing has already set up a special laboratory and each woman will have to take a gender test.

Those athletes suspected of being men will have blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes, and chromosomes.

As well as the lab tests, the external appearance of athletes will be examined.

Tests will be carried out at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The first results will be available in three days, while final results will take seven days.

Experts say only about one in 500-600 athletes are abnormal in terms of gender tests.

Such examinations were carried out at earlier Olympics. The Western press frequently hinted that some Soviet women athletes appeared to be very ‘manly’.

However, interest in gender cheats surfaced again during the 2007 Asian Olympics when Indian middle distance runner Santhi Soundaragan failed the test and was found to be a man.

In the wake of the controversy, the Asian Olympic Committee stripped ‘him’ of the silver medal while the Indian Olympic officials forced Soundaragan to end ‘his’ career.