Track's proposed eligibility, transgender rules would completely ban Semenya...

[Jessica_Rose]

Track's proposed eligibility, transgender rules would completely ban Semenya and others

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/track-s-proposed-eligibility-transgender-rules-would-completely-ban-semenya-and-others/ar-AA1yLgvT?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=50fdaa4e4177456c990161f494f5a370&ei=40

Story by EDDIE PELLS (10 Feb 2025)

Track and field moved toward adopting rules that would place athletes assigned female at birth but have higher testosterone levels, like Caster Semenya, under the same set of rules as transgender athletes who were born male and transitioned to female.

World Athletics, which in 2023 banned transgender athletes who had transitioned male to female and gone through male puberty, announced recommendations Monday that would apply strict transgender rules to people like Semenya, who was born female but has what the organization describes as naturally occurring testosterone levels in the typical male range.

Previously, athletes like Semenya with differences in sex development (DSD) had to undergo testosterone-suppression therapy for two years to be eligible for races between 400 meters and one mile. Now they may be ineligible for any events if they've undergone what World Athletics describes as a male-like puberty that gives them unfair advantages.

In 2023, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said DSD regulations could impact up to 13 current high-level runners.

In a nod to the fact that the rules could knock Semenya and others completely out of elite track, the recommendations proposed "the adoption of measures to address any reasonable reliance interests DSD athletes may have as a result of new restrictions."