The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has rejected claims that it wants women's Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya to be classified as a biological male. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is due to hear Semenya's landmark case next week.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has rejected claims that it wants women's Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya to be classified as a biological male. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is due to hear Semenya's landmark case next week.
The IAAF said it is "not classifying" any athlete with "differences of sexual development" (DSD) as male. "To the contrary, we accept their legal sex without question, and permit them to compete in the female category," it said in a statement on Wednesday.
"However, if a DSD athlete has testes and male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in hemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women.
"Therefore, to preserve fair competition in the female category, it is necessary to require DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before they compete at international level."
The IAAF was supposed to bring in a change to the old rules on 1 November last year; however, the date for the change has been pushed to 26 March to see the outcome of the legal challenge from Semenya and Athletics South Africa.
According to the new rules, women athletes in track events from 400m up to the mile would require to keep their testosterone levels below a prescribed amount "for at least six months prior to competing".
In a similar case, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was also a part of the same struggle, however, she no longer falls in the purview of the new rules announced by the IAAF pertaining to female athletes who have high testosterone levels.
Dutee competes in 100m and 200m while the new rules cover races from 400m to the mile, including 400m, hurdles races, 800m, 1500m, one-mile races and combined events over the same distances.
The 2019 World Athletics Championships begin in Doha on 27 September.
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