Caster Semenya and Gender in Sport

Tests May Define Competition Status, Not Sex

The recent debate over Caster Semenya has opened up the whole vexed question of just why it is that we have women's sports and of what it means to be a woman.

As betting shops take wagers on what the results of Semenya's gender test will be, this unfortunate teenager has found her career on the line and the whole world discussing intimate aspects of her person. Whatever the decision the International Association of Athletics comes to, it is way beyond its remit to tell her who she is.

Nobody is seriously arguing that there are no differences in competitive ability between women and men, especially when it comes to top level track and field events, men have a considerable advantage, and very few women could compete successfully against them even in the heats.

Semenya's performances, though impressive, would not place her among them. There is therefore good reason for holding separate women's events. They give the most capable sporting women the chance to be celebrated for their achievements and they provide inspiration to girls at a time when governments are anxious to encourage them to get more involved in sport.

The trouble is, despite popular belief to the contrary, there is no neat dividing line between women and men. Babies are sexed at birth based on no more solid evidence than what doctors think they look like, and this can sometimes be uncertain or confusing.

Individuals with XX chromosomes may have apparently masculine anatomies, whilst others with XY chromosomes may appear female. Some are ambiguous in appearance, though the notion that humans can be hermaphrodites is misleading.

This is a term used for animals who can reproduce in both male and female ways. although a very small number of people do have both ovaries and testes, they do not fall into this category. The proper term for a person who is not clearly male or female is, in medical discourse, intersex.

What does all this have to do with sport? Some people have argued that intersex people, even if they appear female and have always thought of themselves that way, should not be allowed to compete against women because they may have a competitive advantage.

The logic behind this is unclear. Four years ago, Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of a silver medal after she was found to have XY chromosomes - yet the intersex condition she was born with actually decreases the body's response to testosterone, meaning that, if anything, she was at a disadvantage against her female competitors. She has now spoken out in support of Semenya and criticized the media prurience surrounding the IAAF tests.

In recent years, the IAAF have agreed to allow athletes with some intersex conditions but not others. They allow transsexual women to race in the women's category after two years of hormone treatment, as the physiological changes caused by this take away competitive advantage their birth sex may have given them.

To hang onto her career, Semenya is being forced to undergo a series of invasive tests, which include psychological profiling, something which should strike fear into the heart of any woman who challenges expected feminine behaviour.

The IAAF will ultimately decide how she is allowed to compete, but it is wrong to suggest that they can determine her sex. To suggest this is to discount the most important factor of all - the young athlete's own sense of self. She has grown up and developed as a woman; she identifies as a woman; and nobody can take that away from her.