Gender Testing in Sport: What the Caster Sumenya Ruling Means

Last week, South African Olympic champion Caster Semenya lost her case against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Under new rules recently established, the IAAF ruled that Semenya had higher than natural levels of testosterone and that she wasn’t suited to compete in women’s events. Semenya challenged these new rules with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but was rejected.

Semenya wasn’t cheating, like many female athletes she was born with a condition that causes her to have naturally higher levels of testosterone.

Testosterone is a naturally occurring hormone in the body that is more prevalent in men than women. It is responsible for how our bodies grow and develop, and in men it causes deeper voices, body and facial hair, and stronger muscles.

If Semenya wishes to continue her athletic career she will have to take medication to lower her level of testosterone to what is deemed an acceptable level by the IAAF – medication that carries its own risks of nasty side effects.

Women in sport have long been subjected to so-called “gender tests” – “Their rationale for decades was to catch male athletes masquerading as women, though they never once discovered an impostor,” writes Ruth Padawer for the New York Times.

These tests are often cruel and humiliating and turn up results that were unknown even to the athletes themselves. Such is the case for Dutee Chand, one of the fastest women in India.

After winning both the 200-meter sprint and the 4-by-400-meter relay at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Taipei, Taiwan Chand drew unwanted attention to herself. The Athletics Federation of India conducted tests on her (without telling her what they were for) and found she had higher than normal levels of testosterone. As a result, she was forbidden from racing.

“I said, ‘What have I done that is wrong?’” Chand told reporters later.

“Their rationale for decades was to catch male athletes masquerading as women, though they never once discovered an impostor.”

“Then the media got my phone number and started calling me and asking about an androgen test, and I had no idea what an androgen test was. The media asked, ‘Did you have a gender test?’ And I said, ‘What is a gender test?’

“Some in the news were saying I was a boy, and some said that maybe I was a transsexual. I wondered how I would live with so much humiliation.”

There several reasons as to why some women have higher than normal levels of testosterone. People with these conditions are often referred to as intersex, or having DSD (which stands for either a disorder or a difference of sex development). The estimated number of intersex people varies from one in 5,000 to one in 60 because so many experts argue which conditions to include under this umbrella.

For example, some intersex women are born with XX chromosomes and ovaries, but because of a genetic quirk are born with ambiguous genitalia. Others have XY chromosomes, but have undescended testes and appear female at birth. These women either develop more masculine characteristics at puberty (such as a deeper voice), or develop feminine characteristics (rounded hips and breasts) because their cells become insensitive to testosterone.

Either way, these women can go their entire lives without knowing they have these conditions.

"I just want to run naturally, the way I was born,” Semenya said when the rule changes were announced.

“I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.”

Semenya has been targeted by these accusations her entire athletic career.

“I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.”

“Certain bodies are never allowed to be female, are never allowed to be women, are never allowed to just be,” said Pidgeon Pagonis, an intersex activist.

“What I think this comes down to is, Caster’s faster than white girls and she made them cry.”

“Had Caster been a gender-conforming, straight-identified white girl who just was faster than the other people, they would have never invaded her body (for testing).”

Indeed, many people have compared Semenya’s story to Saartjie Baartman, an African woman who was bought to Europe to be gawked at in freak shows.

There is no escaping the race element to this story.

“Ever since she arrived on the global scene a decade ago, she’s been subject to constant scrutiny, as the media, the public, and her fellow athletes speculated about her anatomy, misgendered her, and argued that she shouldn’t be allowed to race against other women,” said Anna North for Vox.

“Her career is a reminder that when people challenge perceived ideas about masculinity and femininity, their bodies can become fodder for public discussion — often against their will.”

Indeed, the media scrutiny against Semenya began when she was just 18 years old, gearing up for her first major race at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.

Some observers said she appeared masculine and urged the South African athletics body to test her.

“These kind of people should not run with us,” Italian runner Elisa Cusma said. “For me, she is not a woman. She is a man.”

It is these kinds of complains that have fuelled the IAAF to make a firm and concise ruling against women with intersex characterises. They have defended the decision as "necessary, reasonable and proportionate" and that they had "serious concerns as to the future practical application" of these new rules.

The decision has caused a ripple of debate in the sporting world and is by no means the end of the discussion. There will always be athletes like Semenya, and the IAAF is struggling to handle to them.

“They laugh at me because I am different,” Semenya tweeted last week after the ruling. “I laugh at them because they’re all the same.”

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