They fought and pleaded. They exhausted themselves in trying to prove they were who everyone else knew they were. In the end, it didn’t matter.
South Africa’s Caster Semenya could not compete in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics.
Namibia’s Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi faced the same verdict in the 400m.
Their crime? High testosterone levels.
This started in 2018 when track’s governing body, World Athletics, introduced rules targeting sportswomen with Differences of Sex Development (DSDs).
World Athletics took aim at athletes they said had higher testosterone levels than the normal range for women. This, said the governing body, gave these athletes an unfair advantage.
The rule forced Mbomba and Masilini to withdraw from the 400m and compete in the 200m. There Mbomba won silver and Masilini finished sixth.
Semenya, the most high-profile athlete entangled by these rules, was barred from the 800m so she attempted to qualify in the 5,000m but ultimately failed to do so.
Already facing questions surrounding her sexuality for years, Semenya then ran headfirst into new rules that demand she take birth control pills, have hormone-blocking injections, or undergo surgery to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in races from 400m to one mile.
The demand is hypocritical as it requires women to take drugs in order to compete at the Olympics, something the governing body doesn’t want athletes to do.
Semenya has refused to partake in their demands.
“Why will I take drugs?” said Semenya in 2019. “I’m a pure athlete. I don’t cheat. They should focus on doping, not us.”
Over her 12 year career, Semenya has dominated the competition.
She won two Olympic gold medals and three world championship titles.
Yet in nine of those years, according to the AP, track authorities have harassed her with testing requirements, questions, and other forms of interference.
Despite the challenge, Semenya ran until she finally couldn’t in Tokyo.
But last month, a bombshell admission dropped that didn’t receive the attention it needed, especially outside of the sport.
World Athletics admitted that some of the findings that led to the restrictive rules were “misleading.”
The Report and Backtrack
World Athletics’ employees Stéphane Bermon and Pierre Yves Garnier originally authored the report in 2017.
They found increased performance from women with high testosterone levels in certain events.
A year later, based solely upon this one report notes professor Roger Pielke, World Athletics issued their regulations which barred Semenya, Mboma, and Masilingi.
But now an admission quietly published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine has put those rules in serious question.
“To be explicit, there is no confirmatory evidence for causality in the observed relationships reported. With this in mind, we recognize that statements in the paper could have been misleading by implying a causal inference.”
World Athletics continued, as reported by The Telegraph.
“Specifically, ‘Female athletes with high fT [testosterone] levels have a significant competitive advantage over those with low fT in 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 800 m, hammer throw, and pole vault.’,”
“This statement should be amended to: ‘High fT levels in female athletes were associated with higher athletic performance over those with low fT in 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 800 m, hammer throw, and pole vault.'”
According to Pielke, this shows that World Athletics’ claims of a causal relationship between testosterone levels and athletic performance in sportswomen (in events from 400m to one mile) were wrong.
World Athletics called for an independent scientific review to “establish confirmatory scientific evidence for the causal relationships between the variables analyzed.”
This admission opens the door for many possibilities, including action from the legal team of Semenya, who is currently embroiled in a legal fight against the current rules.
“We are in the midst of the European Court of Human Rights case and will be discussing with our London Queen’s Counsel and the whole legal team how to introduce the information into the proceedings,” said Semenya’s lawyer, Gregory Nott.
“It is more than surprising that World Athletics did not reveal this evidence before the recent Tokyo Olympics and allow Caster to defend her 800 meter title.”
Surprising yet maybe not a coincidence.
World Athletics admits their restrictions are discriminatory but “fair, necessary and proportionate” to keep the playing field level.
But that claim has faltered after their admission.
With this in mind, it’s reasonable to wonder whether their dominance motivated the questionable regulations to be enacted.
Semenya was dusting the 800m field.
Mboma and Masilingi ran three of the four fastest times in the world this year at 400 meters leading up to the Olympics.
Most glaring is that these rules adversely affected one specific group- Black women, specifically Black women from Africa.
Requiring women to ingest drugs or surgically alter their bodies based upon an apparently flawed report is invasive, humiliating, and wrong.
As a result, this case must be watched closely by all.
If the findings are proven to be false, the rules must be revoked immediately and these women must be allowed to compete in their chosen events. They should also be compensated as well.
This appears to be another restrictive attack on (Black) women’s bodies, which falls in line with the current trend exemplified by Texas.
So track fan or not, we all need to remain vigilant about this situation.
