IAAF president breach confidential agreement on Semenya’s case

Double Olympic 800-metres champion Caster Semenya says she is “no threat” to women’s sport and that recent comments from International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe have reopened old wounds.

 

Caster Semenya is awaiting a court verdict on her appeal against an IAAF regulation that says female athletes classed as having differences in sexual development (DSDs) gain an unfair advantage due to their higher testosterone levels, though only in races between 400 and 1,000m.

 

Semenya has gone to talk for other women in sport who might be going through the same issues as hers. Under the new rules, athletes classed as having DSDs must reduce their blood testosterone level to below five (5) nmol/L for a continuous period of six months before they can compete. They must then maintain it below that level continuously.

“The reason we have gender classification is because if you didn’t then no woman would ever win another title or another medal or break another record in our sport,” said Sebastian Coe.

 

Caster Semenya’s lawyer responded to Coe’s statement that the scars that Semenya has developed over the years run deep.

 

“The scars Ms Semenya has developed over the past decade run deep. Reading the comments of Mr. Coe this weekend opened those old wounds and the is just the latest illustration of how the issues have been distorted by innuendo. Mr. Coe is wrong to think Ms Semenya is a threat to women’s sport, calling her a “heroine” and “inspirational role model” to young girls,” Semenya’s lawyer said.

 

 

Semenya also sought to differentiate her case from those of transgender athletes who were formerly male but have now entered the female sporting arena. Hence she made it a point that she does not only represent herself but all the women that face the same issue.

 

“Ms Semenya is a woman. There is no debate or question about this and the IAAF does not dispute this. She was born a woman, raised a woman, socialised as a woman and has competed as a woman her entire life. Mr. Coe may have views about transgender women in sport, but that is a different issue. Ms Semenya does not wish to undergo medical intervention to change who she is and how she was born. She wants to compete naturally,” Her lawyer added.

 

The IAAF said Coe’s comments are consistent with his, and the organisation’s, stance on DSD athletes from the beginning.