Albany Times Union

Track bans some athletes

New rules prohibit transgende­r athletes, change rules for others

- By Eddie Pells

Track and field banned transgende­r athletes from internatio­nal competitio­n Thursday, while adopting new regulation­s that could keep Caster Semenya and other athletes with difference­s in sex developmen­t from competing.

In a pair of decisions expected to stoke outrage, the World Athletics Council adopted the same rules as swimming did last year in deciding to bar athletes who have transition­ed from male to female and have gone through male puberty. No such athletes currently compete at the highest elite levels of track.

Another set of updates, for athletes with difference­s in sex developmen­t (DSD), could impact up to 13 current high-level runners, WA President Sebastian Coe said. They include Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion at 800 meters, who has been barred from that event since 2019.

Semenya and others had been able to compete without restrictio­ns in events outside the range of 400 meters through one mile but now will have to undergo hormone-suppressin­g treatment for six months before competing to be eligible.

Coe conceded there are no easy answers on this topic, which has turned into a societal lightning rod involving advocates who want people assigned female at birth to be able to compete on even footing and others who don’t want to discrimina­te against transgende­r and DSD athletes.

“All the decisions we’ve taken have their challenges,” Coe said. “If that’s the case, then we will do what we have done in the past, which is vigorously defend our position. And the overarchin­g principle for me is we will always do what we think is in the best interest of our sport.”

Athletes with sex developmen­t difference­s, such as Semenya and Olympic 200-meter silver medalist Christine Mboma of Namibia, are not transgende­r, although the two issues share similariti­es when it comes to sports.

Such athletes were legally identified as female at birth but have a medical condition that leads to some male traits, including high levels of testoster

one that World Athletics argues gives them the same kind of unfair advantage as transgende­r athletes.

Semenya has been running in longer events. She finished 13th in her qualifying heat at 5,000 meters at world championsh­ips last year.

In a recent interview, she said she was aiming to run in the Olympics at a longer distance.

“I’m in the adaptation phase, and my body is starting to fit with it. I’m just enjoying myself at the moment, and things will fall into place at the right time,” the South African

runner said.

Now, in order to compete at next year’s Olympics, she

would have to undergo hormone-suppressin­g treatment for six months, something she has said she will never do again, having undergone the treatment a decade ago under previous rules.

Mboma, who won her silver in Tokyo two years ago but was out of worlds last year because of an injury, has not publicly stated whether she would be willing to undergo hormone therapy.

Another athlete, Olympic 800-meter silver medalist Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, also has said she would not undergo treatment.

While Semenya struggled at longer distances, Niyonsaba had relative success,

winning Diamond League titles at 3,000 and 5,000 meters and running in the 5,000 at the Tokyo Olympics.

Under the new regulation­s, athletes in the previously “unrestrict­ed” events would have to suppress testostero­ne levels below 2.5 nanomoles per liter of blood for six months. Ultimately, they would have to stay below those levels for two years.

Previously, athletes with difference­s in sex developmen­t had to lower their testostero­ne to below 5 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least six months before competing, and the rules only applied to distances between 400 meters and one mile.

 ?? ?? SEMENYA
SEMENYA
 ?? Manish Swarup / Associated Press ?? Christine Mboma, an Olympic silver medalist, hasn’t stated whether she’d be willing to undergo hormone therapy.
Manish Swarup / Associated Press Christine Mboma, an Olympic silver medalist, hasn’t stated whether she’d be willing to undergo hormone therapy.

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