Caster Semenya: Why the IAAF’s decision to regulate ‘female testosterone’ is stunting human potential

Photo Credit: Mark Shearman

It’s hard to watch an Olympic champion step away from their final race on a such unsettling terms.

On Friday, Caster Semenya — a two-time Olympic gold medalist—potentially ran her last 800m race at the Diamond League meet in Doha. The good news: She won, clocking in at 1:54.99. It was the fourth fastest time of her career and her 30th consecutive victory in the 800m. The bad news: It was her final mid-distance race before she has to adhere to the IAAF’s female hormone regulation policies. She’ll have to take testosterone suppressants if she’s ever to compete again. And to that, the 28-year-old said, “Hell no”. Her admirable defiance only adds to her incredible legacy.

For context, Semenya’s body naturally produces more testosterone than most people who are born with XX chromosomes, which IAAF officials have recently re-decided is an unfair competitive advantage. From 2010 to 2015, she was forced to undergo hormone suppression therapy in order to compete. Luckily, she was able to compete in the 2016 Olympics as her natural self since the rule was temporarily suspended. But in 2018 the IAAF reinstated a new rule barring “intersex” athletes competing in the women’s mid-distance races, and Semenya decided she wasn’t going to concede without a fight.

Unfortunately, this was a race she didn’t win and because of that, track and field fans may not ever see the legend compete on an international stage again.

Now many others have written about the racist and sexist implications of the IAAF’s decision and I agree with them. But I want to move the discussion in a slightly different direction.

I think the IAAF is failing to ask the tough questions.

When we get down to it, Caster Semenya’s brilliance is encouraging us to look at gender (as it stands) and ask, “Is this construct really serving us?” It’s asking us to really look at why we even separate gender in sports.

I’m writing this as a person who identifies as a woman and has benefited from playing sports with the same gender. For a while I’ve believed every time I played soccer against men or raced them on the playground that I was always going to be at a disadvantage. Boys were stronger than me, faster than me, and they can hurt me. It’s best to keep in my lane. I could argue that keeping in my lane has allowed me to access tremendous opportunities (i.e. playing college sports; thank you Title IX), which I appreciate to this day.

Of course, there are a lot of studies to support why I should have kept in my lane and why we separate girls and boys in sports after they hit puberty. Arguably men have more testosterone than women, build more muscle, grow taller etc. etc.

But a mentor once told me that “facts are not truth.” Facts have the capacity to change based upon the expanse of human knowledge. According to his reasoning a fact is like when we used to believe the earth was flat. We, of course, discovered that it’s not. Truth is something that is true in every single situation. No matter what. To give an example (and I think it’s pretty safe to say this): the laws of gravity demonstrate truth.

So is it always true that natural, healthy women have less testosterone than men, cannot produce as much muscle mass or get as fit or strong? Semenya’s case and the case of many others are starting to show us, “not exactly.”

What is true is that the variance of human existence infinite. People fight to place each other into these limited boxes. And because of that I can’t help but question the real potential of the female body and every body that is not deemed “male”.

I question it everyday when I watch women dominate at my CrossFit gym. I think about how Olympic World Record holder Katie Ledecky smashes her male teammates at swim practice. I remember the recent studies that argued that women are potentially better than men at long distance running. And — extreme, I know but— I think about those women who have lifted burning cars to save their loved ones. Even though that’s an extreme situation, have you ever thought about where that “crazy strength” comes from? Is it possible that women could learn to tap into that when it isn’t a life or death situation?

Perhaps.

I also can’t help but reflect on all of the female athletes (including myself) who have trained with men to raise their competitive bar.

Last year, I had the pleasure of working with Stephanie Labbé on an essay for the Players’ Tribune about why she should be allowed to play in a Canadian pro men’s league. The 32-year-old goalkeeper who attempted to join the Calgary Foothills in 2018, ended up holding her own by the end of preseason. But the league, unfortunately, ousted her last minute. I know that even her short stint with the team has improved her as a player and awakened more of her potential.

Even though Labbé’s and Semenya’s cases are entirely different and feature different sports, I believe that the IAAF’s decision and the decision of many sports administrators are keeping womxn small.

They are dismissing one of the main reasons why people love sports: To see humans do shit that is out of this world.

We want athletes to break world records to smash boundaries … unless our understanding of human society comes crashing with it.

I mean, did we forget how we celebrated Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt for being physical wonders? In Phelps case, scientists have proven that Phelps’ body produces less lactic acid than his competitors. We “wowed” his genetic advantage and yet we punished Semenya for hers. Men don’t have an upward limit. Womxn do.

No doubt, we are protecting these boundaries of man vs. woman out of fear and worry. How will we keep sport fair? officials are asking.

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a bit worried about what would happen if we obliterated gender separation in sports. I’m competitive and I don’t love the idea of losing my competitive edge.

But what if we all approached this situation with wonder instead of worry?

What if womxn are only just beginning to uncover our physical potential?

If this is true, humanity is capable of achieving so much more.

More than we could have ever imagined.

PS: To Caster Semenya, thank you for your contribution to the world of track and field. And thank you for being unapologetically queer, a women of faith and just a badass human being. You’ve given so many people on this planet permission to be themselves and sparked a conversation that is encouraging humanity to evolve and expand.