Sadly, Caster Semenya has not been the first highly successful female athlete to be accused of masculine qualities and to face banning from sports.
Semenya flexes her muscles after winning the gold medal in the women’s 800-metre at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.As a professor of kinesiology and physical education who competed in athletics at the 1964 Olympics, it’s my view the explanation is to be found in a misunderstanding of natural testosterone, a narrow misreading of the Olympic values, the distrust engendered by almost century of sex testing in international sports and a failure of leadership on the part of the IAAF.
Then there’s the ethical question. On what basis do you exclude athletes because of who they are? Natural testosterone is a human condition. When I used to urge athletes against doping, I often said “play with your own chemicals.” Now the IAAF is banning female athletes who play with their own chemicals. The Court of Arbitration for Sport emphasized that Semenya was not cheating, and that she should be admired for her athleticism and courage.
Sadly, Semenya has not been the first highly successful female athlete to be accused of masculine qualities and to face banning from sports. In fact, from the very beginning of high-level women’s sport, Every female athlete I know can recount the stress of “gender verification” and hundreds suffered from the stigma of false positives., but the very same people who administered it tried again when Semenya raced onto the scene. The legacy of this history continues to pit women against women and poison the sport.
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