SORRY, CASTER FAILS ACID TEST
tHe debate around Caster semenya will only intensify now she takes part in her strongest event, the 800m. there are those who condemn the iaaF’s attempt to limit her naturally occurring testosterone levels, arguing it is no different to height advantages, to Bjorn Borg’s slow heartbeat or Michael Phelps’ abnormally extended limbs.
it is, though. if semenya were simply tall, or rangy, or had the capacity for exceptional fitness, it would come with the territory. supreme athletes in all fields may have outlier characteristics. We accept that.
semenya is different because she produces the major hormone necessitating a separation of the sexes for sporting purposes. take testosterone away and we wouldn’t need a women’s event. Women do not race apart from men because of limbs or height but because of testosterone.
the leading 1500m runner at under 17 boys’ level at my local athletics club — Woodford Green — would have won the women’s World Championship gold in London this week by 6.78 seconds.
His name is alex Cornwell. He set that club record in 2008 while not even the best junior runner in the country. He didn’t develop into a superstar, either, never made the national team, and his last official British ranking over 1500m as an adult was 42nd in 2014. Yet he would have annihilated the greatest female middle-distance runners in the world while just a boy. this is the difference testosterone makes.
Consider, too, that we live in a society in which people are increasingly viewed as gender fluid; in which they identify as a gender mentally as much as physically. How do we steer women’s competition through that minefield, if testosterone levels are deemed insignificant?
Of course, semenya’s road has been painful, and some aspects crassly handled. she is an innocent party in all of this. We cannot let our sympathy, however, cloud what is a crucial judgment for the sport by ignoring the significance of testosterone production. it is not the same as having long legs. it is the essence of the difference between men’s and women’s competition.