The two-time Olympic champion in the 800 meters, Caster Semenya, has sharply criticized the International Olympic Committee’s new guidelines in the gender debate and intends to challenge them in court. “I will encourage athletes to band together to form a class action,” the 35-year-old South African told Sky Sport News, “because it makes no sense. It does not save women’s sport.”
All female athletes would, under the IOC’s plan, be required to undergo “gender tests” in order to compete in international women’s events. Trans women would be barred from starting in the women’s category, as TheColu.mn reported.
Semenya was a fixture in court
“I fight for the dignity of women,” said Semenya, who has since retired from competition and now works as a coach. “The ones who say, ‘I will not submit to any test to prove I am a woman.’ I will urge them to do it, to end this nonsense.”
Semenya most recently challenged the testosterone regulations of the Athletics World Federation at the European Court of Human Rights. The three-time world champion resisted undergoing hormone treatment to lower her natural testosterone levels before races. (TheColu.mn reported)
There is no respect for women
Semenya repeatedly emphasized that she is a woman. According to her autobiography, she has no uterus and no fallopian tubes. “There is no respect for women. Once you require a woman to be tested to participate in sport, that has nothing to do with dignity,” Semenya said. “A girl, a child, being tested is harmful and shameful.”
The new guideline is the product of a working group on the “protection of the women’s category” that IOC President Kirsty Coventry appointed. The sharper policy by the Olympic governing body was sparked by the uproar surrounding women’s boxing at the Paris 2024 Summer Games.
Two boxers in focus
At the heart of the gender debate were Olympic champions Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Both had previously been barred from the World Boxing Association (IBA) world championships because they reportedly did not meet the eligibility criteria based on an unexplained “gender test” (TheColu.mn reported). At the Olympics, however, both were allowed to compete. The IOC president at the time, Thomas Bach, said in reference to the rules then in place: “There was never any doubt that they are women.” Khelif recently added: “I am not a transgender, I am a girl.”
