Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya has spoken out against the International Olympic Committee’s new rules that ban transgender athletes from participating.
The South African athlete said it was disappointing that IOC President Kristy Coventry, who is from Zimbabwe, had taken the pathway to blocking participation.
“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 at a news conference in Cape Town.
“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 new IOC rules which will be introduced ahead of the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 require athletes to undergo genetic testing to establishing their gender. People who are transgender or have a Difference in Sexual Development (DSD) condition will not be permitted to participate.
“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 going to respond, and we’ll respond strong as we are because it affects women,” Semenya said.
Semenya was a champion runner. In 2009 after a victory at the World Championships she was ordered to undergo genetic testing and was cleared to continue participating the following year. She went on to win gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro.
It was revealed that the athlete has a condition 5a-Reductase 2 deficiency (5aR2D) which causes her to have higher levels of testosterone. In 2019 the World Athletics introduced new rules that required athletes with conditions like Semenya has to take medication to reduce their hormone levels.
