Caster Semenya & The Challenges of Sex Testing: How World Athletics Are Depriving the World from Witnessing a Generational Talent

Analysis by Albert Geokgeuzian, Staff Writer

June 16th, 2021

How would you differentiate between a man and woman? Physical appearance? Chromosomal testing? Testosterone levels? All of these methods have been used throughout history by sports officials to differentiate between male and female athletes. None, however, are perfect; instead, they highlight the limitations of science when it comes to accurately differentiating between men and women. These limitations have proven to be a problem throughout history, as different athletes have been disqualified depending on the test that was used to determine their sex. The latest athlete to have problems competing due to sex tests is Caster Semenya, who has been disqualified from competing in international competitions due to the latest test that is used to determine sex.

No test was made mandatory by an international sports organization before 1966, when World Athletics, an organization known as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) before 2019, began using physical exams. A "nude parade", which is when a group of doctors examined a female athlete's genitals to determine if they were able to compete as a woman. Even ignoring the humiliation that must have been caused due to these "nude parades", these tests were deemed to not be good enough for World Athletics, so much so that they changed their testing just 1 year later to chromosomal testing.

Eva Klobukowska was a Polish sprinter who won bronze at the 100m event in the 1964 Olympics, however, there were doubts about whether she was actually a woman. As such, a physical exam was used on Klobukowska in 1966 to determine her sex, and she passed the physical examination. These tests were later deemed to be not good enough, and were changed only a year later to chromosomal testing, which Klobukowska failed.

Klobukowska’s failure of the chromosomal test comes down to the fact that there are more than 2 options for sex chromosomes to form, and while XX and XY are the two predominant pairs, there are other, albeit extremely rare, formations of the human sex chromosomes. The complexities of sex determination by chromosomes require a whole other article, but for our purposes, using chromosomal testing to check a person’s sex is difficult, and as such, internation sports organizations have switched to a different test to determine one’s sex: testosterone levels.

Testosterone is a hormone that both men and women produce, albeit at vastly different levels, with men producing 4-15 times more testosterone than their female counterparts.  The test sets a limit to how much a female athlete is allowed to have in their system. Officials adopted testosterone limits in 2011, but when World Athletics were challenged on their banning of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2015, they were overruled on the basis that there was no scientific evidence that showed that testosterone had an impact on an athlete’s results.

In 2018, World Athletics came back with a lower limit and evidence to back their claims, even though the study was questioned by the scientific community. This limit was only applied to track and field distances between 400m and 1500m.

Which brings us to Caster Semenya, who usually runs the distances between 400m and 1500m, and was banned from competing unless she takes drugs that lower her naturally high levels of testosterone. These medical treatments could have harmful side effects on her body, and it’s something that Semenya has stated she does not want to do. Both the UN and the World Medical Association have come out in support of Semenya’s decision, with Dr. Frank Montgomery, a member of the World Medical Association, saying, “She said she doesn’t want to take this type of medication and I think she is right. It’s entirely unethical to administer drugs to someone who doesn’t need them.”

There is another problem with how World Athletics determines who to test; one only has to look suspicious to be eligible for testing, and that policy is ripe for abuse. The Human Rights Watch put out a report discussing this issue in late 2020, and because a group of certain people get to decide who to test based on suspicions, it might be the case that non-white athletes like Semenya and Dutee Chand don’t fit a certain group of people’s description of what a female athlete should look like.

World Athletics have said, “The reason we have gender classification is because if you didn't then no woman would ever win another title, or another medal, or break another record in our sport.” and while that is true, there is a clear difference between what men are subjected to and what women are subjected to in the world of athletics. For women, the high levels of testosterone are viewed as an unfair advantage, while no such ruling exists in men’s sports. Yes, Caster Semenya does have higher levels of testosterone compared to the average woman, but Usain Bolt had longer and bigger strides than his compatriots which gave him a huge advantage, and Michael Phelps has a 203 cm wingspan, long torso and other physical gifts that give him huge advantages over his fellow swimmers. The difference is that when men have natural differences that give them advantages in a specific sport they are called a generational-talent, whereas with women they are deemed to have an “unfair advantage.”

Semenya challenged the ban placed on her by World Athletics at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and failed, and she is now awaiting the decision of the European Court of Human Rights on her lawsuit, aimed at overturning the ban she is currently under. It is her last chance at being allowed to compete in international sports, and if her bid fails, women’s sports will have lost a generational talent from showing us what peak performances by a female athlete would have looked like.