Rules Are Far From Clear

After witnessing what's happened with Caster Semenya, I wanted to have a look at how things stand with transgender athletes. Caster Semenya is not transgender, she's a female but she was born with XY chromosomes and due to this her testosterone level is much higher than it should be. This has caused a lot of trouble, she's been going through a lot of trouble and it looks like it's far from over. She's been ordered to lower her testosterone in order to compete. In an interview she said she has no intention of taking medication to lower her testosterone level, so we don't know what's going to happen.

As I said earlier, I wanted to see what's the case with transgender athletes. I had a feeling that things are not clear there either and looks like I was kind of right.

Athletes transitioning from female to male have no problem but the other way around, athletes transitioning from male to female are in trouble as they must suppress their testosterone level for at least 12 months before competition as higher testosterone level can give them an advantage.

It looks like science is a bit behind proving what's happening with these athletes, how their performance changes compared to the other athletes. Studies are not clear, rules are not clear either. IAAF has set a testosterone limit for women but only for the 400-meter, the 400-meter hurdles, the 800-meter, the 1,500-meter and the mile. Why not for half marathon, marathon or other category? Some say these rules were set specifically for Caster Semenya.

According to this article, the new regulations are based on "fatally flawed" data.

The authors have called for a retraction of the original research and asked the International Association of Athletics Federations -- the global governing body for track and field -- to reconsider the rule change. source

Yet, the rules were not reconsidered and are valid.

Laurel Hubbard is another controversial example. She was born as Gavin before transitioning in her 30s and was allowed to compete in a female weightlifting event, where she won two gold medals for New Zealand. Obviously not everyone was satisfied with her participating, some said it's not fair regarding the other participants.

I was wondering if her testosterone level had been tested or if there's any regulation regarding the matter as we all know testosterone increases your muscle and bone mass. I couldn't find any.

Tokyo Olympics is just around the corner and these things should be clarified till then. Sharron Davies, Dame Kelly Holmes, Paula Radcliffe supported by other 60 athletes wrote to IOC president in March 2019 asking to further investigate this issue.