Caster Semenya’s career might soon be over. The International Association of Athletics Federations has announced new eligibility rules for women’s competitions, affecting running races between 400 meters and one mile. The regulations, which place limits on natural testosterone levels and androgen sensitivity, will come into effect on Nov. 1, and are expected to significantly impact athletes like Semenya who do not seem to fit neatly within the binary classification of male and female.
Semenya burst onto the international circuit as a South African 17-year-old in 2008, winning the 800-meter track races at both the World Junior Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games. By 2009 both Semenya and the IAAF were embroiled in controversy after the organization had compelled her to take a sex verification test amid rumors that she may be intersex. Her world championship title, won that August, seemed in jeopardy.
South Africans broadly came out in support of Semenya. “We wish to register our displeasure at the manner in which Ms. Semenya has been treated,” said South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma in August 2009. “They’re not going to remove the gold medal. She won it,” he added. In an interview for the South African magazine YOU a month later, Semenya said “God made me the way I am and I accept myself.”
On Jul. 6, 2010, Semenya was finally fully reinstated to international competition. She would go on to win a silver medal in the 800-meters at the London 2012 Olympic Games, which was later upgraded to gold when Russian Mariya Savinova was disqualified for doping. At Rio 2016 she defended her title with a time of 1:55.28. In tears after the race, British runner Lynsey Sharp, who finished sixth, said “Everyone can see it’s two separate races so there’s nothing I can do.” (Notably, Semenya’s time was still two seconds slower than Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1983 world record, set during the height of the Cold War doping era.)
Results from the IAAF testing of Semenya have never been officially made public, but if it is true that her body does produce a naturally high amount of testosterone, the new rules look certain to affect her. Athletes with a “Difference of Sexual Development” that results in a blood testosterone level of 5 nmol/L or above and who are sensitive to that hormone difference will need to take steps to reduce that level in order to compete in international women’s events.
“Our evidence and data show that testosterone, either naturally produced or artificially inserted into the body, provides significant performance advantages in female athletes,” explained IAAF President Sebastian Coe in announcing the changes. “The revised rules are not about cheating, no athlete with a DSD has cheated, they are about leveling the playing field to ensure fair and meaningful competition in the sport of athletics where success is determined by talent, dedication and hard work rather than other contributing factors.”
— Caster Semenya (@caster800m) April 26, 2018
But in the IAAF’s effort to solve the problem of a level playing field, the organization’s stance is certain to be controversial. “I am 97% sure you don’t like me, but I’m 100% sure I don’t care,” Semenya tweeted in response to the IAAF announcement. In a statement, the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party accused the IAAF of racial bias. From a normal position where athletes are generally restricted from using medication to compete, the IAAF will now require some athletes to use medication. And all medication has side effects.
While hormonal contraceptives—the types of drugs that the IAAF suggests could be used to lower an athlete’s testosterone level—are generally considered safe, they are not without complications. Estrogens and progestin, the hormones typically used in birth control pills, have been shown to increase the risk of both breast and endometrial cancers. They have also been linked to blood clots and heart disease.
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SportTechie Takeaway
All elite athletes are extreme in some way or another, and those extremes are often part of what make them elite. Sometimes hard work can be enough to close that gap, but often the difference is irreversibly genetic. Basketball players are unfairly tall, jockeys are unfairly small. There are no 5-foot NBA Hall of Famers, and no 7-foot winners of the Kentucky Derby.
The higher than usual, but natural, testosterone levels of some female athletes might just be what makes them elite, and what allows them to compete with others who hold different genetic advantages. And all but forcing athletes to take drugs to neutralize a natural strength in the name of leveling the playing field doesn’t quite seem fair or ethical.