August 13, 2017. Final of the women’s 800 m dash at the World Athletics Championships, here in London. With a final sprint, South African Caster Semenya won her third title. He raised his arms in the air, smiled. It was the only one. I was there, as a correspondent for SporTV. The other athletes passed our space in the interview area in a hurry, their faces a mix of anger and frustration. Lastly, Semenya, who also did not speak to journalists after the most controversial event of the competition.
Almost nine years later, the new IOC (International Olympic Committee) policy changes cases like this and others once and for all.
From the next Olympic Games onwards, only biologically female athletes will be able to compete in women’s competitions. Transgender women and those with differences in sexual development (DSD) — a condition in which reproductive organs, hormones and genes can be a mixture of male and female characteristics, as in Semenya’s case — will only be able to compete in male races. I agree and think the decision is fair. A year earlier, the South African had been two-time Olympic champion in Rio. The entire podium was made up of athletes with DSD.
In the announcement, Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to lead the IOC, said the evidence from the science is clear; that this is the result of a year and a half of scientific studies and consultations with experts that showed that athletes with male chromosomes have an advantage mainly in sports involving strength, power and endurance; that more than 1,000 athletes were consulted.
Until then, criteria for gender eligibility were up to each international federation — those for swimming and athletics, for example, banned those who went through male puberty from the elite of female sports.
Now, the IOC will centralize monitoring. Starting this Friday (27), athletes will have to take a genetic test, just once, to find out whether or not they have the SRY gene, linked to the Y chromosome — which causes male characteristics to develop. Anyone who tests positive will be excluded from the women’s category. In practice, it is the banning of trans women and those with DSD, unless the latter prove that they do not benefit from increased testosterone.
In Tokyo 2021, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was the first trans woman to compete in a female Olympic event, after reducing her testosterone levels. At Paris 2024, there was great controversy when boxer Imane Khelif won gold, a year after being disqualified from the world championship for failing a gender eligibility test.
The IOC’s decision does not end the debate and it is fair to listen to the other side. Experts believe that genetic testing, already used in athletics and supported by sports scientists, is the most reliable way. There are those who warn that it would create a stigma for these athletes. The fact is that the current model, without a consistent rule based on science, is not working.
When dealing with the subject, it is essential to separate sport with a very high level of inclusion of trans people in society and their participation in recreational competitions. One thing has nothing to do with the other. And this is not a setback for gender equality in sport.
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