The Thorns of a Dilemma

"[Despite the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, our rules will] remain in place."

"We  remain of the view that the ... regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Tribunal both found."

"[There are] a number [of other elite athletes who fall under the regulations setting limits on natural testosterone levels for female athletes to compete in female sport categories]."

World Athletics

 

"Caster has never given up her fight to be allowed to compete and run free."

"This important personal win for her is also a wider victory for elite athletes around the world. It means that sporting governance bodies around the world must finally recognize that human rights law and norms apply to the athletes they regulate."

Semenya's legal team

Caster Semenya, pictured competing on Feb. 18 in Australia, was legally identified as female at birth and has identified as female her entire life. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

 

According to World Athletics, Caster Semenya's testosterone levels advantage her athletically in a manner comparable to a man challenging women by competing in women's events. They see an obligation to fairness in sport by taking steps to balance the competitive edge to ensure that no competitors in the female category of sport competition be permitted to compete with what they construe as an unfair advantage over the balance whose testosterone levels are considered to be in the acceptable range of female athletes.

This is a case similar to, but yet unlike the ongoing debate over transgender women transitioned from male to female seeking to compete with natural-born women, despite their having undergone biological formative years of male hormone advantages that confer on them the attributes of a male skeletal-muscular frame with the male energy, strength and physical endurance that accompanies that natural maturation process. Later declaring themselves women certainly places them at a distinct advantage over their natural female counterparts.

 

It's a strange gender-revealed world we live in. Semenya was identified at birth as female, she was raised a girl, and is identified legally as female. She has a condition in the category of 'differences in sex development', causing naturally high testosterone, typical of male development. She is reported not to have been born with a womb, but with sexual characteristics of both male and female. At one time she might have been characterized as hermaphrodite. While declaring herself female, she is married to another woman, and in their relationship, Semenya is identified as the male partner, the husband.

 

She is a world class champion runner, a two-time Olympic champion. After which her abnormally high testosterone level as a woman drew attention and was deemed to disqualify her from competing in female sport events with women whose testosterone levels fell into the normal female category. Her advantage, she responded angrily, is no different from an elite basketball player whose natural height gives them an advantage, an outstanding swimmer whose championship owes much to being advantaged with abnormally long arms and legs.

Hers, she says, is a genetic gift. Track authorities make no effort to challenge Semenya's legal gender, focusing on the condition that identifies her with the typical male XY chromosome pattern with physical traits that identify her as "biologically male". When Semenya first met her future wife Violet Raseboya, Violet was convinced Semenya was male. Violet Raseboya bore them a child a year or so ago.

When the European Court of Human Rights found for Semenya -- agreeing with her that the regulations imposed upon her that she must take testosterone-lowering drugs to enable her to compete fairly with female athletes, declaring they discriminate against her as a result of her condition -- they concluded there were "serious questions as to the validity" of the testosterone rules. 

 

Among them side-effects of the hormone treatment that athletes would have to undergo, including difficulties remaining within the rules, attempting to control their natural hormone levels, along with the "lack of evidence" their high natural testosterone actually gives them an advantage. Tuesday's judgement in Semenya's favour was a morale pick-me-up for the athlete, but it isn't yet the end of the story. Judgement aside, there is no sign that the rules will be dropped any time soon.

Caster Semenya and wife Violet Raseboya