Running Debate

The Semenya Question

The single biggest controversy on the track in 2016 has been what to do about Caster Semenya. The South African 800m Rio gold medallist self-identifies and competes as a woman while living with hyperandrogenism.

Semenya is intersex. Medical records leaked in 2009 indicate that she has internal testes, no ovaries or womb and endogenously produces at least three times the testosterone in comparison to the average woman, 99 times out of 100. But last year an international sport arbitrator ruled that athletes with hyperandrogenism may compete without any limiters, saying that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that testosterone is a performance enhancer. The iaaf, track ’s international governing body, has until July 2017 to provide compelling evidence.

Semenya stormed onto the track scene in 2009. In just one year, she dropped her bests from 2:04.23 to 1:55. 45 as a teenager, an unheard of performance improvement, which prompted the iaaf to put her through a sex verification test. Tactless as it was at the time, it revealed Semenya’s unfair advantage. She was subsequently ordered to take testosterone-limiting medication.

From 2009 to 2016 she ran annual seasonal bests at well under 2:00. Except during 2014, while she was was required to take hormone medication. Then the best she could manage was just 2:02.66.

When the arbiter overturned the iaaf’s policy, Semenya was back to near worldrecord form. The world record of 1:53.28 by the Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová from 1983 has always been viewed as suspicious – as have most of the next fastest performances between Kratochvilova’s and Semenya’s, which currently ranks at 20th all-time.

Unsurprisingly, Semenya was once again dominant in 2016. She easily ran her personal best (and again the fastest time of the year in the world) of 1:55.28.

Although it would be ridiculous to suggest that Semenya is at fault for her condition, and it is not something that she should be shamed for, hyperandrogenism likely gives her an unfair advantage.

Many of her competitors are frustrated. Some have even been cruel. Elisa Cusma Piccione of Italy said, “For me, she is not a woman… It is useless to compete with this, and it is not fair.” Britain’s Lynsey Sharp said after being easily defeated in Rio, of racing Semenya that “it is out of our control and how much we rely on people at the top sorting it out. The public can see how difficult it is with the change of rule but all we can do is give it our best.” She also suggested in that interview that her feelings about Semenya’s unchecked testosterone levels were echoed by other 800m runners who finished off the podium.

Canada’s Melissa Bishop is not one of them. Although at times Bishop has avoided discussing the subject with the media, she did tell the Ottawa Citizen, “No one in the race has control over this. Me missing the podium is because I didn’t run fast enough, not because of who was in the race.”

In fairness, Canadian physiologist Trent Stellingwerff made it clear that there isn’t enough information regarding how much (if any) performance enhancement exists when a high level of testosterone is naturally produced in hyperandrogenous women. It’s research that desperately needs to be done.

The problem remains that Semenya has demonstrated anecdotally that elevated T-levels must be a performance enhancer. Science has already proven that elevated levels of testosterone in women can provide an increase in performance. This is why wada has banned the use of testosterone.

The only way that the vast majority of women can elevate their testosterone to the levels of hyperandrogenous women is to take performance enhancing drugs. Essentially, they would have to cheat. This creates a paradox: do you force a small minority of athletes to take inhibiting drugs in order to maintain the parameters of what is “female,” or do you open up the doping f loodgates? It’s an impossible problem that’s unfixable without redefining the fundamental categories of sport.

Between wada’s ban of testosterone and Semenya’s demonstration while on and off the protocol, there appears to be a strong case that both exogenously and endogenously elevated testosterone are both indeed performance enhancers.

Regardless, her competitors are limited in their levels of testosterone, while Semenya is not.

How is that fair?