(TOKYO) — The complex testosterone regulations in track and field have become an issue again at the Olympics after Namibian teenager Christine Mboma won a silver medal in the 200 meters after being banned from some other events because of her natural hormone levels.
Mboma was one of two 18-year-old Namibians to surprisingly qualify for Tuesday’s 200 final. Her teammate, Beatrice Masilingi, is also affected by the testosterone rules. But their bans only apply to races between 400 meters and one mile, allowing them to run in the 200 at the Olympics.
Both Namibian teenagers were barely-known in international track and field until this year, when they started running some extraordinarily fast times. That prompted governing body World Athletics to order tests on them in the weeks before the Olympics. They were found to have natural testosterone levels that are higher than a limit set by the sport for female athletes.
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They are the same rules that have sidelined two-time Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya.
SO WHAT ARE THE TESTOSTERONE RULES?
Essentially, the rules are designed to deal with the dilemma presented by female athletes who were born with conditions that mean their natural testosterone levels are much higher than the typical female range. World Athletics says that’s a problem because the high testosterone gives them unfair athletic advantages over female athletes with more typical testosterone levels.
The answer, according to the current rules, is to ban the athletes from certain events unless they agree to artificially lower their testosterone to a level set by World Athletics.
That’s caused controversy for many reasons, but the most emotive appears to be this: Track authorities are basically asking the athletes to artificially manipulate their natural hormone levels and change their natural physiology — effectively make themselves slower — if they want to compete at major meets.
HOW DOES IT AFFECT THIS OLYMPICS?
Mboma broke the 200-meter world under-20 record three times in two days at the Olympics, including in the final. Her ability to win a silver medal at her first Olympics, beating athletes like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Gabby Thomas, will undoubtedly provoke speculation regarding the advantages of her naturally high testosterone.
The presence of Mboma and Masilingi might also cause discontent among other runners, who may feel they are at an unfair disadvantage. There was backlash from some athletes when Semenya was dominating the 800-meter event a few years ago.
On Tuesday, 2016 Olympic 400-meter champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo questioned why World Athletics’ rules kept Mboma and Masilingi out the 400 but not the 200.
“I have no comments on it,” Miller-Uibo said after finishing last in the 200 final. “The only thing really is (the ban) was for a few events and I think everyone was trying to figure out why just the few events and not straight across the board.”
Fraser-Pryce said: “If they’re allowed, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
WHERE DOES SEMENYA FIT IN?
Track and field has been trying to deal with the issue for years, but it really became a hot topic with the emergence of Semenya in 2009. Semenya, then also an unknown teenager, won gold in the 800 at that year’s world championships. Just 19, she appeared to be completely dominant in her race.
So, World Athletics spent the best part of a decade trying to formulate rules that would deal with the complex issue. There have been multiple versions of the rules but the latest, produced in 2018, refer specifically to female athletes with conditions known as DSDs — differences of sex development. Basically, they focus on athletes born with the typical male XY chromosome pattern but also female characteristics and who were identified as female at birth.
Semenya was the first to publicly announce she was affected by the rules. She also has been the most outspoken critic of them and has challenged the rules in three different courts. She lost cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Supreme Court and has now taken World Athletics to the European Court of Human Rights.
Semenya says the rules are discriminatory and has refused to manipulate her natural testosterone level, meaning she has been banned from running the 800 meters since 2019, and was barred from defending her Olympic title in Tokyo.
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT?
World Athletics will have to consider including the 200 meters in the testosterone rules, although the governing body has conceded it may not have the scientific data to support a ban in races outside the 400 to one-mile range. If track authorities don’t also regulate the 200, they will open themselves to more criticism that the rules were targeted at Semenya and are inconsistent.
The biggest takeaway may be this though: Semenya is gone from the Olympic stage but the highly controversial issue is still front and center.
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