Testosterone Levels in Elite Athletes

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that compared the testosterone levels of Olympic-level elite athletes.

Testosterone is a hormone that is naturally produced by both men and women, though typically at lower levels in women. Some international sports organizations use measurements of testosterone levels to determine eligibility for competing in women’s sports events. These rules are often challenged, as demonstrated by the case of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand. This figure shows the blood testosterone levels for 676 Olympic-level elite athletes, grouped by their biological sex and sport.

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information. The graph and its title appear as in the published paper.

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.