US Edition
Caster Semenya believes that the controversy over transgender inclusion in sport is irrelevant to her case and has suggested that there is a racial element to what she calls her “discriminatory” treatment.
The double Olympic 800 metres champion can no longer compete in female track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs after being born with differences in sexual development (DSD).
Semenya says that she discovered that she “did not have a uterus or fallopian tubes” only when she was 18 following a gender test and, although she is supportive of transgender women competing in sport, says that the two situations should not be mixed.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the trans community,” said Semenya on the Noted with Mary podcast. “I sympathise with them, I have feelings for them. I don’t have a problem with them competing, but it would be unfair for a woman with a DSD talking on behalf of a woman who is a transgender. More research needs to be done.
“And then obviously the trans family needs to come on board to argue the matter, to make, you know each and everyone understand the situation. But, I love them, I support them in everything that they do, but when it comes to my situation, it’s way irrelevant to mix it.”
Semenya has challenged the World Athletics DSD regulations and, although her case was rejected at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Court, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that her human rights had not been protected by the Swiss government. The case, which is not against any specific sporting governing body, has now gone to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber for a final ruling.
The issue came into sharp focus at the 2016 Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro when all of the medallists in the women’s 800m were DSD athletes.
World Athletics are adamant that subsequent interventions have been simply to protect the female category. “If we don’t, then women and young girls will not choose sport,” said a spokesperson. “That is, and has always been, the federation’s sole motivation.”
‘It’s a racial issue, it’s discriminatory’
Semenya, though, has now claimed that only people from particular ethnic backgrounds are under such scrutiny.
“If you look into our situation, it only affects brown skinned/coloured people,” she said. “It’s only them that are being scrutinised … even brown-skinned people who are in America. If you look at Serena Williams, it’s been questioned.
“It worries me because it only affects those kind of people who are coming from certain continents. As the title says ‘World Athletics’, why are you calling it ‘World Athletics’ if you are going to judge, you’re going to discriminate?
“It’s a racial issue, it’s discriminatory. You’re going to just separate women and draw a line where, ‘If you’re a different woman you’re not a woman’. It needs to get into their head that you need to consider human rights. What p*sses me off is that it’s men who divide women, and men are still going to tell you that right now it’s important for a certain group of women to be sidelined from sports.”
World Athletics say that they have 15 years “of data, observations and information directly from DSD athletes in our own sport that show high testosterone levels do provide an unfair advantage in the female category - and that our guidelines on testosterone thresholds are necessary, reasonable, and proportionate in our aim to protect the integrity of the female category”.
In reference to an alleged “racial issue”, a World Athletics spokesperson said: “Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) conditions occur all around the world and are usually diagnosed at birth. In Africa, like in other developing areas or countries, the diagnosis often comes later because there is currently a lack of post-natal monitoring and checks. This occurs for many reasons, and much is being done in some countries to address this”.
Of the remark about “men making the decisions”, the spokesperson added: “The World Athletics Council (which consists of 26 elected members – currently 13 men and 13 women) and the Competition Commission (the role of which is to provide expertise and guidance to the Council) were responsible for all decisions related to the approval of the DSD rules and regulations.”