The Caster Semenya ruling uses an unscientific definition of who is female, critics say. Human rights groups and medical researchers decry a decision based on testosterone.
South Africa's Caster Semenya races for the line in a Women's 800 meter semifinal during the World Athletics Championships in London, in 2017. By Ariana Eunjung Cha Ariana Eunjung Cha National reporter Email Bio Follow May 2 at 12:17 PM In ruling against Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, the highest court in international sports effectively imposed an exacting, mathematical definition of who should be considered male or female based on a single factor — testosterone levels.
The IAAF has said the rules are only meant to ensure “fair and meaningful competition,” and are not as judgment on any athlete’s sex or gender identity. As many parts of the world have come to embrace a broader view of gender identity, legislatures in several countries and at least four U.S. states have moved to ban medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex minors to make their external genitalia more typical of one sex. Critics of this practice argue the conditions are not something that needs to be “corrected,” but part of the natural diversity of humans.
The “normal” female range, as defined by the IAAF, is below 2 nanomole per liter in the blood, and the normal male range is 7.7 to 29.4 nanomole per liter. In a rule issued in 2018, the IAAF decreed that women who have levels above 5 nanomole per liter take measures to reduce that level to below 5 nanomole per liter through the use of medications such as oral contraceptives to continue competing.
But many experts argue that physiology is but one part of achievement in sports, and that training, perseverance and access to resources are just as important. Barring Semenya from competing, they say, would be like excluding swimmers with unusually wide arm spans or basketball players who are over 7 feet tall.
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