Athletics: IAAF Denies it Wants To Classify Semenya As Biological Male

Athletics: IAAF Denies it Wants To Classify Semenya As Biological Male

By Francis Joseph

The IAAF has emphatically rejected a report that it wants the women’s Olympic 800m champion, Caster Semenya, to be classified as a biological male when her landmark case is heard next week.

Athletics’ governing body has stated that it was not classifying any athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) as male, “accepted their legal sex without question” and would allow all of them to continue to compete in the female category. However, it wants the court of arbitration for sport to rule that DSD athletes such as Semenya, who was reportedly born with testes, must have their testosterone reduced to female levels before they compete internationally in order to ensure fairness with other women.

Explaining its position, the IAAF said: “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 haemoglobin 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.”