Two women athletes from China are being scrutinised by the public.

This was after photos of them looking like men have been making the rounds online, first in China, and now, internationally.

Scrutiny

The two Chinese athletes, Liao Mengxue, and Tong Zhenhuan, both 24, won gold and silver respectively at the national sports meet earlier this year.

They are part of a 4x400m women’s relay team representing Hunan.

Their competition results have been impressive, finishing up to three seconds ahead of the next best competitor.

Some Chinese media outlets have reported that both athletes are not intersex, and are definitively female, despite appearances.

However, many Chinese commenters online are left incredulous, and have insisted they have seen a video interview conducted with the runners, where one of them speaks in a low voice.

Video

The video referred to appears to have been shot at the IAAF World Relay Championships in Yokohama, Japan, in May 2019.

One of them, Liao, can be heard answering questions at length.

She appears in the video starting from the 16-second mark:

The YouTube video has been watched more than 273,000 times.

Comments for the video have been disabled though.

Here is a rough translation of what Liao said in Mandarin:

The feeling when I first started running, was a feeling of nervousness.

When I started running I was tired, but before we started, our coach gave us a small objective to meet.

Today, we successfully completed a small objective.

Our next goal is to finish top in tomorrow's race.

Between the two athletes, Liao appears to be the one who is scrutinised more.

This is perhaps not the last time the world has heard of them or from them.

Until the next competition.

So long.

Here is the video again in case the YouTube version doesn't work anymore: