Man Poses as Woman to Reach Finals of a Beauty Competition: Here are Few Cases of Gender Cheating

Cheating is an old habit that dies hard. Players are going to play fair, and cheaters are going to cheat. But gender cheats are altogether creating its own significant space. And unfortunately, it never stops making headlines! Gender cheat incidents, when an individual participates in a competition held for the opposite sex is not only unfair but unhealthy for the entire concept of sportsmanship. Much like in recent reports of a glamorous participant who made to the finals of a national beauty contest held for females in Kazakhstan was disqualified after the young sensation was found to be a man. Posing as a woman, the accused not only fooled organizers and fellow competitors but also cheated the spectators.

The 22-year-old, Illay Dyagilev fooled organisers and judges after posing as Alina Alieva beating 4,000 applicants to reach the final stage of the competition. "My friends and I, we had a debate on beauty, and I decided to take part in the pageant," the participant reported. He decided to reveal his identity as he realised it went too far.

If you think that this is a rare example that stole the attention than hold that thought for a second. Here are few incidents where the participants took cheating to another level—to fulfil their dreams and taste success.

Stella Walsh – Polish Track and Field Athlete

One of the best female athletes of the 1930s, Polish track and field athlete Stella Walsh set more than 100 national and world records. Confusion mounted when Walsh was tragically killed in 1980, after being caught up in an armed robbery of a department store in Cleveland, Ohio. The post-mortem revealed that she had male genitalia, which immediately questioned the validity of her achievements in athletics. Further examinations claimed that Walsh suffered from a condition called mosaicism, which meant she had both male and female chromosomes. However, despite this evidence, she is still regarded by most as a gender cheat and a man who posed as a woman.

Dora Ratjen – German Athlete

Dora Ratjen finished fourth in the women's high jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and broke the world high jump record in 1939 during the European Athletics Championships. But Dora who was raised female was born a man. When officials found out, she was forced to return her medals, had her world record stripped.  Dora later changed her name to Heinrich.

8 Men in Iranian Women’s Football Team

In 2010, doubts were first raised over the gender of Iranian Football Team’s goalkeeper. Then in the year 2014, the country’s football governing body introduced random checks that revealed four of its national players were men who completed sex change operation. In 2015, Iran’s football association was accused of being unethical after it claimed eight players were a part of their women national team. However, these men claimed to be waiting for sex change operations.

Guy took girlfriend’s help to win a contest as lingerie model!

In 2017, a then 20-year-old male Russian student named Andrey Nagorny posed as a lingerie model and won a contest. After the expose, he was striped of the title and prize. If you think this was the most shocking bit of this tale, wait to hear more. Andrey had taken help from his girlfriend, from borrowing makeup to outfits to win the competition.

Each of them had a different tale. But it not just hurts the sentiment but decreases the integrity of the competitions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 08, 2018 07:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).