Semenya rule costly mistake by IAAF
In March, the IAAF unveiled a radical restructuring of its Diamond League circuit, hoping the changes would help track and field broaden its appeal.
Starting in 2020, the Diamond League would encompass 24 events instead of 32, with streamlined meets designed to trim broadcast lengths from two hours to 90 minutes. Purists might hate to see races such as the 5,000 metres disappear, but the new format would target the short attention spans of sports fans raised on social media.
The changes are a marketing play, aimed at retaining the casual fans who tune in during the Olympics. But in announcing the moves, the IAAF stressed that competition was still key, and the new product would “ensure the Diamond League captures the very best athletes in exciting head-tohead clashes.”
But the IAAF can’t reconcile its stated goals — finding new fans and creating a platform for the sport’s elite — with its ongoing campaign to sideline 800metre world champion Caster Semenya.
On Tuesday, the Swiss Supreme Court reversed a June decision that suspended an IAAF rule limiting natural testosterone in female athletes competing in races from 400 metres to a mile. The rule would force Semenya to change events or limit her natural testosterone through medical intervention, but she fought the rule in court and remained an 800-metre runner.
Tuesday’s ruling bars Semenya from this year’s world championships, where she would have been a favourite to win a fourth gold medal in an event she has dominated for most of the past decade. But the rule keeping Semenya out of competition, refined over the years to target the South African more specifically, also stands between the IAAF and the marketing goals that prompted its Diamond League makeover.
Semenya reacted with a Twitter post hinting at a shift in her career trajectory.
“First chapter of my life done,” she wrote. “Looking forward to my second chapter.”
Later she tweeted the word “Inseparable” alongside a photo of herself on a track.
But for now, she’s out of action. The rule is the rule, and we’ve discussed its flaws at length in the past.
It’s bad for human rights because it targets women who excel — there are no similar limits on men’s natural testosterone. And it opens the door to further policing other natural advantages when someone who lacks them decides they’re unfair. Imagine the NBA blocking the Celtics from signing Tacko Fall simply because Fall stands seven-foot-six and you’ll see where the IAAF’s testosterone rule could take us.
It’s also a triumph of bad faith, because if natural testosterone was a real problem, the IAAF would regulate it universally, and not just in the races Semenya runs. The IAAF wouldn’t legalize EPO for sprinters on the grounds that the blood-boosting hormone helps endurance athletes more. It’s out of bounds for all athletes because taking it is cheating, period.
But the testosterone rule is also bad marketing for a sport hoping to grow its audience.
If the IAAF wants to reach beyond its current group of hardcore followers, every Semenya race contains elements that resonate with casual fans. Semenya’s the system-fighting maverick who has spent several years battling track and field bureaucrats who questioned her womanhood. And she’s a super-elite performer posing a constant, if long-shot, threat to one of track and field’s longeststanding world records. The drive-by observers who watch Olympic track and field broadcasts understand those subplots even if they can’t spot the danger in running a 54-second first lap.
And we all recognize that, in the first global championship of the post-Usain Bolt era, the presence of any athlete with a following outside hardcore track fans can help attract new audiences.
As a social media figure, Semenya doesn’t approach Argos practice squad kicker Donald De La Haye, who boasts more than 1.7 million YouTube subscribers. But her 160,000strong Instagram following puts her ahead of U.S. 100metre star Christian Coleman, the world’s top performer in the sport’s glamour event. And De La Haye’s experience with the Argos shows us social media fans will follow you into competition, provided you get the chance to compete.
Tuesday’s court ruling deprives Semenya of that opportunity, but a sport seeking new fans loses out, too.