Semenya fights ‘unfair’ testosterone rule
Caster Semenya is taking legal action against a new rule that will ban her from competing internationally unless she takes testosterone-lowering medication.
Earlier this year, the International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport’s governing body, announced the creation of a new female classification called Athletes with Differences of Sexual Development, which includes women with hyperandrogenism, such as Semenya.
Women who fall into that new category will be banned from competing at track distances between 400metres and a mile unless they take medication to reduce their natural hormone levels.
The rule, which is due to come in from Nov 1, has been implemented after Iaaf-commissioned research concluded that female athletes with naturally high testosterone levels benefit from a significant advantage over their rivals.
However, the IAAF has been accused of implementing the rule purely to target Semenya, who has been unbeatable over 800m in recent years, winning Olympic, world and Commonwealth titles. A previous incarnation of the rule forced the South African to take testosterone-reducing medication after winning her first world title in 2011. It was then halted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2015 – and Semenya has filed a case to the same legal body this week.
“I am very upset that I have been pushed into the public spotlight again,” said Semenya, 27. “I just want to run naturally, the way I was born. It is not fair that I am told I must change. It is not fair that people question who I am. I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.”
A statement from Semenya’s lawyers say the South African deems the regulations to be “discriminatory, irrational and unjustifiable”.