AT the Olympics, elite sprinter, Christine Mboma, won silver in the 200-metre event and last week, the Namibian athlete clinched the Diamond League title with an Under-20 world record of 21.78s.
Aside from being 18 years old, what makes her achievements outstanding is the fact that she only began focusing on the 200m in July, and it’s only a matter of time, and technique, before she’s able to break Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 21.34s.
Yet, Christine is on a losing side: the faster she runs, the more evidence she provides that she has an unfair advantage as an athlete with differences in sex development (DSD).
Francine Niyonsaba, who won the women’s 5,000m Diamond League final, has a similar dilemma.
After being forced to switch from their favourite events, the 400m and 800m respectively, both Christine and Francine could face further heartache and restrictions as World Athletics is faced with a major headache in a Caster Semenya redux.
It was Caster, who failed in her challenge to overcome controversial rules that bar athletes with DSD from running internationally at events between 400m and a mile, unless they take medication to reduce their high testosterone.
In Caster’s case, the Court of Arbitration for sport’s decision (CAS) ruled that 46 XY DSD athletes “enjoy a significant sporting advantage … over 46 XX athletes without such DSD” due to biology”.
It noted that 46 XY 5-ARD individuals have male testes but do not produce enough of a hormone called DHT, critical for the formation of male external genitalia, which it said leads to having “no typical birth sex”.
However, it added: “Individuals with 5-ARD have what is commonly identified as the male chromosomal sex (XY and not XX), male gonads (testes not ovaries) and levels of circulating testosterone in the male range (7.7-29.4 nmol/L), which are significantly higher than the female range (0.06-1.68 nmol/L).”
Experts agreed there were other advantages, including “greater lean body mass, larger hearts, higher cardiac output... and larger V02 max than 46 XX individuals”.
CAS ultimately decided that the World Athletics’ DSD rules were discriminatory but justified to provide fair competition for women with normal testosterone levels.
But in a nuanced summary, it stressed its admiration for DSD athletes who, as one expert pointed out, “often appear female at birth and are reared female”, and considerable unease about the way testosterone would have to be tracked if they took medication.
“This is an issue in which reasonable and informed minds may legitimately differ,” it added.
Those minds are certainly differing right now. Some of Christine’s rivals, including the 400m gold medallist Shaunae Miller-Uibo, have questioned why the restrictions are “just a few events and not straight across the board”.
But there are many who want no restrictions at all as they find it appalling to ask athletes to take medication and want sports to recognise that society is becoming more gender-fluid.
Despite whether you value fairness or inclusivity more, critics on both sides believe World Athletics’ current policy is not fit for purpose.
In the case of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand in 2016, CAS ruled it would be discriminatory for World Athletics to require all athletes with a DSD to take medication, unless it provided more evidence.
Because of the over-representation of athletes with a DSD in the 400m and 800m, World Athletics decided to just focus on those events and the 1500m and mile.
“Put simply, on one hand is the right of every athlete to compete in sport, to have their legal sex and gender identity respected, and to be free from any form of discrimination,” CAS said.
“On the other hand, is the right of female athletes, who are relevantly biologically disadvantaged vis-à-vis male athletes, to be able to compete against other female athletes and to achieve the benefits of athletic success.”
By calling the policy “a living document”, CAS also opened the door for World Athletics to restrict more events.
Given that Semenya’s appeal remains ongoing, that probably won’t happen just yet. – Agencies, September 14, 2021
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