People Are Petitioning For Caitlyn Jenner To Give Back Her Gold Medal

A petition is underway to get the International Olympic Committee to strip Caitlyn Jenner of the gold medal she won for the decathlon in 1976.

The Change.org petition argues because Jenner stated she knew was a woman during the Montreal Olympics, she should not have participated in an event involving only men.

Petition creator Jennifer Bradford writes,

We congratulate Ms. Jenner on these new developments and wish her the best. However, this creates somewhat of a problem as Ms. Jenner (as talented as she is) claims that she has always believed herself to be truly female, and therefore, was in violation of committee rules regarding women competing in men's sports and vice versa.

Jenner was not undergoing hormone therapy at the time of the competition, according to Yahoo! Celebrity, and even if she was, the decrease in testosterone would have put her at a disadvantage against male competitors.

Bradford also appears to have forgotten there is no women's decathlon at the Olympic games.

The petition reads,

It is only fair to all involved that women receive their credit as champions of the Decathalon and that the men racing Ms. Jenner are not expected to compete with a superior, streamlined being such as herself.

Transgender individuals have been permitted to compete against athletes of their chosen gender at the Olympics since 2012.

They must meet three conditions, however: The athlete in question must have had gender reassignment surgery, be legally known by his or her chosen gender in his or her home country and have taken hormone therapy for at least two years.

In 1977, a transgender tennis player named Renée Richards made it to the final round in the doubles competition at the US Open.

She had undergone gender reassignment surgery two years prior.

Bradford's petition, which was posted on Monday, the same day Jenner's historic Vanity Fair story was released, garnered approximately 10,000 signatures as of this morning.

The Huffington Post notes this number becomes a lot less frightening when compared to the 134,000 people who signed a petition to have Kanye West removed from Glastonbury or the million-plus signatures in favor of bringing Jeremy Clarkson back to the BBC show "Top Gear."

Citations: Caitlyn Jenner Petition To Revoke Her Olympic Gold Medal Condemned On Social Media (The Huffington Post), Petition Urges International Olympic Committee to Revoke Caitlyn Jenners Olympic Title (Yahoo! News)