South African double Olympic champion Caster Semenya has declared her intention to fight against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) newly introduced gender testing policy for the female category at the Olympics. Semenya insists the policy “undermines women’s rights” and represents a significant escalation in the long-running debate over fairness in women's sports.
The IOC unveiled the policy last week, and it is expected to become a universal rule for competitors in elite female sports after years of fragmented regulation that has sparked controversy. Semenya has been at the centre of such controversies due to her protracted legal battle with World Athletics over her right to compete despite having a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD), a condition involving genes, hormones, and reproductive organs.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, the 35-year-old athlete stated, “We’re going to be vocal about it, we’re going to make noise until we’re heard.” She emphasized, “Now it’s a matter of women standing for themselves to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ We are not going to be told how to do things,” questioning why her appearance, voice, or internal anatomy should be problematic for participation if she is accepted as a woman.
Semenya challenged the IOC's scientific basis, asserting that “there’s no science” proving XY-DSD provides an athletic advantage. She remarked, “I’ve been there, I’ve done that. There’s no such thing as that,” and argued that athletic greatness is achieved solely through hard work, not biological factors. The testing protocol will involve cheek swabs or saliva analysis for all athletes in the female class, with further investigation for those testing positive for the SRY gene, which triggers male characteristic development in mammals.
Additionally, Semenya criticized IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first woman and first African to hold the office, for failing to adequately consult her or other athletes with DSDs about the policy. She revealed, “They sent us a letter the day they were going to publish [the new policy],” accusing the consultation process of being merely a box-ticking exercise rather than genuine engagement.
Source: www.aljazeera.com