The Missing Handsome Olympians

How a podcast changed my Olympic viewing experience

Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

My dearest readers and followers, wherever you are. Please excuse my long absence. It seems that I’ve inadvertently taken a bit of a summer break from Finding Handsome. But never a break from being Handsome or living the dream!

Here is my sleepy-ish and slightly long-winded pre-amble for this article.

I have always LOVED the Olympics. There’s something about the discipline, tenacity, and inner strength that I find so compelling. I love watching the incredible athletes and hearing their stories. In my head, it’s always been this pure and even playing field where anyone can get there if they just put in the time. As a young jock, I was never really good enough at any sport that I could see myself as a future Olympian, but a kid could dream, right?

Then I grew up and learned about Capitalism and other forms of inequality like sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, etc. You know the drill, right? But this year, something happened that interfered with my viewing pleasure. And I’m grateful. It was Journalist Rose Eveleth’s podcast “Tested,” a six-episode podcast about testing female athletes’ testosterone levels to “level the playing field.” If you haven’t listened, click on the link and have a listen. It’s EXCELLENT! AND, it revealed to me that women who present as a little too “masculine” have been and continue to be excluded from competing at the Olympics. Wait, what???!!

All I could do while watching this year was notice the huge void of visible female or AFAB masculinity. What is actually going on here? Where are the lovely handsome heroes? If anyone knows where or how I can locate any almost Olympians who have been eliminated from competition because of gender testing, please reach out! I would love to photograph them. These are our people!

Also, take a look here at a 2022 article written by Julie Compton about scrutinizing the ‘gender’ of female athletes.

Keep digging everyone. We need more handsomes in the world (in my humble opinion).