Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 800-meter race, blasted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over a new policy to ensure fairness for females competing at the highest level of sports.
Semenya, who has disorders of sex development (DSD), has testosterone levels higher than a typical female range and has launched legal challenges in order to compete in the women’s category. Semenya said she expected more from IOC President Kirsty Coventry.
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“Personally, for her as a leader, she’s an African, I’m sure she understands how, you know, we as Africans, we are coming from, as a global South, you know, you cannot control genetics,” Semenya said Thursday. “For me personally, for her being a woman coming from Africa, knowing how, you know, African women or women in the global South are affected by that.”
The IOC said it would employ genetic testing to verify the biological sex of competitors in women’s events. The IOC said eligibility for events in the women’s category is “now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one-time SRY gene screening.”
“Evidence‑based and expert‑informed, the policy – applicable for the LA28 Olympic Games onwards – protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” according to the organization.
“Obviously if you say the science, because we talk about science here, if the science is clear, show us who decided and don’t dress that as a lie because it’s a lie, and we know because we’ve seen it so if we were to answer or confront Kirsty that’s how we gonna respond, and we’ll respond strong as we are because it affects women,” Semenya said.
Semenya won Olympic gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Games but is banned from competing in certain international meets like the Olympics and world championships since she refused to follow the rules and take medication to reduce her hormone levels.
“For me personally, I’ll say the voice is not heard because you taking it as a tick box, you ticking a box so you can go clarify or say yes we’ve consulted,” she said. “For me, it’s you ticking the box.”
The IOC said it came to the decision to implement the policy after consulting with a panel of experts, with the goal of providing equal opportunity for women in sport.
“The policy was developed on the basis that it is universally accepted that providing for a female category is necessary to allow both males and females equal access to elite sport,” the IOC said in an announcement.
“It was guided by the IOC’s modern goals relating to equality (equal opportunities for female athletes in finals, on podiums and in championships); enhancing Olympic value (featuring both women’s and men’s finals in every sport); and visibility and inspiration (celebrating female athletes on the Olympic podium to inspire and represent women and girls worldwide).”
Coventry suggested that the continued enabling of males in women’s sports is “not safe” in the announcement.
“As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” she said.
“So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
