Caster Semenya LOSES appeal in Swiss Federal Supreme Court over restriction of testosterone levels in female athletes... meaning South African star cannot defend her Olympic 800m title in Toyko next year

UK Daily Mail ^ | September 9, 2020 | Riath Al-Samarrai

[C19fan]

Caster Semenya will be unable to defend her 800m Olympic title next year after losing her appeal to Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court against testosterone regulations in female runners.

Under rules introduced by World Athletics, and supported by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year, athletes with 'differences of sexual development' (DSD) are not allowed to compete between 400m and a mile without taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

South Africa's two-time 800m Olympic champion Semenya has been pushing through the courts to overturn the ruling but is now unlikely to run at the Tokyo Games unless she qualifies in the 200m.

[C19fan]

Caster is not cheating. She did not develop properly prenatally. She has XY chromosomes and if I understand right she has testes inside her producing high levels of testosterone. Caster can compete if she takes the testosterone-reducing drugs.

[C19fan]

I believe if I remember correct intersex people who compete as women dominate these longer distance races.

[F450-V10]

Although a difficult situation, at least she has a valid genetic reason.

[Kozak]

Caster Semenya = “A secret man yes”

[Libloather]

[Steven Tyler]

The ruling is nuts

They require her to take drugs to change her performance

[Dead Corpse]

Games, professional or Olympic, should have 3 classes.

Men's.

Women's.

Open.

The Open class is for the freaks. From transgender to genetic mutants to outright top-fueled/chem altered beasts.

To be honest... I'd prefer to see the freaks. Normal people are boring.

[JayGalt]

Caster is not “cheating” she just wants to run & is good at running.
What would be cheating is for the authorities in the sport to allow her to compete with an unfair advantage.
It is difficult to see people like Caster be shut out of the sport. That is why there needs to be a separate class of gender indefinite athlete who compete against each other or against past records.
Sad as it is to cut off Caster from competing it would be that much sadder to destroy women’s sports and disappoint all the women who have trained just as long & just as hard by essentially making it impossible for them to win. Before long men would be “red shirting” so they could win with performances that would not class as a win as men competitions.

[JayGalt]

IMO it comes down to disadvantaging all women athletes vs disadvantaging a group of women who have an advantage based on their not being women (XY) on a genetic & hormonal basis. Being taller, shorter, having faster muscle twitch rate etc is different than being male and presenting as a woman.

Excerpt from article linked below:
Trans female athletes who begin hormone therapy to transition (male to female) after puberty remain taller on average than cis female athletes and have more muscle mass for more than a year after initial suppression of testosterone...snip...

Some of the controversy is surrounding female gender athletes (regardless of genetic sex) with naturally occurring high blood testosterone concentrations due to DSD.

These athletes have a lifetime exposure to greater amounts of testosterone than cis women without a DSD, which is associated with important physiological differences (e.g., increased muscle and red blood cell production) that may create a competitive athletic advantage.

https://medicine.uw.edu/news/sex-hormones-and-athletes