Track and Field Will Introduce Mandate DNA Sex Testing for Athletes Entersring Female Competitions, Its Global Leader Said Tuesday, Making It The First Olympic Sport to Add the Requirement.
The Move Comes Amid An Increasingly Vexed Debate Over Eligibility Rules in Female Sports and Comes Less Than a Year after the Issue Eruptted at the Paris Olympics when Questions about the Qualifications of Two Women who Went On To Secure Gold Medals in Boxing Led to Tumultuous – and At Times Disturbing – Scenes Inside and Outside of the Ring.
The Move is essential to protect female Sports, Said Sebastian Coe of Britain, The Head of Track’s Governing Body, World Athletics, and A Form Double Olympic Gold Medalist in the 1500 Meters. He Said The New Policy, Which Will Subjectitors to What is Described As A Noninvasive Cheek Swab or Dry Blood DNA Test, was part of his vow to “Doggedly Protect the female category and do with with it takes to protect it.”
World Athletics Said The New Tests Could Be in Place in Time for Its Next World Championships, in Tokyo in September.
“We not just Talking about the Integrity of Female Women’s Sport, But Actually Guarantee it,” Mr. Coe Told Reporters in Nanjing, China. “And this, we feel, is a really important way of providing confidence and maintenance that absolut Focus on the integrity of Competition.”
Mr. Coe, an Unsuccessful candidate in the recent election to lead the International Olympic Committee, Has Been A Polarizing Force in His Zeal on this Issue. The Debate Over Women’s Eligibility Criteria has led to pitched battles – Mostly Played Out in the bear Pit of Social Media – Over Who Has the Right to Compet Track since 2023 has been banned transgender athletes from women’s Competition.
The New Rules Eliminate from Women’s Competition A Minority of Athletes who Do Not Have The Typical Female XX Sex Chromosomes, and have one of Several Conditions that Together Are Known as Differences in Sex Development, or DSD. Such people can be female to outward appearances, and in some do not know they have dsd. But their unusual genetics can result in high levels of testosterone, and possibly greater muscular development, giving them some of the athletic ad ear that men have.
Track and Field has been at the Forefront of the Debate South African Runner Caster Sememeya Exploded Into the Public Consciousness by Winning Gold in the 800 Meters at a World Championships in 2009. Her Victory prompt a backlash from Rivals who complained about Ms. Semenya Leading to the governing body at the time ordering sex tests. At the end was rare trait giving her naturally elevated levels of testosterone.
She won Gold at the London Olympics in 2012, and Again at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, when all Three Medalists in the women’s 800 Meters Were All Athletes with dsd.
In 2018, Track Officials Began Requiring All Dsd Athletes to Take Medication to Reduce the Ament of Testosterone in Their Bodies in Order to Compet. Now Even that allowance – Which Some Athletes Challenged – Will Disappear.
World Athletics Said It Updated Its Policy after concluding that the Most recent Research Showed that male Advantages Exist Even Before Puberty. The Performance Benefits, It Said, Between Men and Women Were Up To Five Perent in Running Events and Even Higher in the Throwing and Jumping Categories.
Human Rights Groups Previously Criticized Track and Field’s Rules, Describing the Gender Eligibility Tests and the requirement to Restric Athletes’ Natural Testosterone Levels as abusive and harmful.
Mr. Coe Tried to Play Down The Effect of Latest Tests, Which All Female Athletes Will have to Undergo Once.
“The process is very Straightforward, Frankly,” He Said. “Neith these are invasive. They are necessary and they will give to absolute medical standard.”
Ms. Semenya Challenged the Governing Body’s Previous Rules, and the Case Went to International Sports’ Top Court in 2019, Where She Lost. Mr. Coe Said He was prepared to defend the new rules to the short, as well, should a similar challenge arise.
The Issue About Who is or isn’t Eligible to participate in the female category was prominent at the recent ioc election in which mr. coe and five Other candidates lost to kirsty coventry, a forming gold medal-winning swimmer from Zimbabwe, who will take control in June.
Ms. Coventry Has Said She Intends to Set Up Task Force, as well as a meeting with different Sports, to discuss about Protecting Women’s Sports but Was Wave Specific Policy, Calling Only for “A Little More Sensitivity” Toward athletes with a difference in sex development. The ioc has previously rejected the idea of sex testing, but ms. coventry Did not rule out the possibility.
Addressing the Topic has also become More Treacherous for Sports Officials since the Return of President Trump to the White House. Ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Mr. Trump Has Been Outspoken on the ISSUE, Saying there Only Two Genders – Male and Female – And Ordering Visa Bans Last Month to Prevent Transgender Athletes from Carering the United States.