Run, Caster, Run
There are those who believe they were born in the wrong bodies and are willing to take hormones opposite to those of their birth genders and undergo drastic physical alterations so that their appearance conforms with their gender identities. Caster Semenya is not among them. She is merely a woman who possesses all of the normal female physical attributes, and is only the fastest 800 meter runner of her sex in the world.
However, Caster has a rare disorder that causes her body to produce an amount of testosterone, the basic male hormone that is the biological source of strength and body mass, in an amount many times more than that of an average female, and that causes an unfair advantage, according to track and field’s world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations. As a result, Semenya will no longer be able to compete against other women unless she takes medication that will lower her testosterone levels to a more typical female level. The IAAF’s position has been affirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest level tribunal for international sports, so unless Semenya abides by the ruling, she will be ineligible to defend her two-time Olympic gold medals in the next games, nor compete in the upcoming world championships, for her native South Africa.
There are those who defend the ruling, saying that women’s sports must maintain its integrity. And there have been abuses in the past, not least, when East German “women” were fed steroids that allowed them to dominate track & field, particularly the throwing events, in the 60s and 70s. But, according to the IAAF, Semenya’s it is natural body function that effectively make her a cheat.
The debate over unfair advantage in womens’s sports hit the headlines in the 70s when an opthalmologist named Richard Raskind fully transitioned to become Renee Richards and attempted to compete on the women’s tennis tour. It was argued that Richards, who was a male tennis player at Yale, would have an edge over the other women because of her prior male existence. A court ultimately ruled in her favor, but she proved to be only a so-so player, most likely because she was already in her forties, so whatever physical advantage she may have held had dissipated. Or maybe she just wasn’t that good.
Of course, Caster’s case is entirely different. She is being discriminated against because her peculiar biology supposedly makes her insufficiently female. The science is unsettled, but, the advantage seems to apply only in races from 400 meters to a mile. Huh? But even if an advantage can be proven clearly, where does it stop? Elite athletes are generally freaks of nature anyway. Should there be a height limit for NBA players or weight restrictions for the NFL? And what would we have done about Secretariat if we had known that his heart was 22 pounds, almost three times the size of an average thoroughbred? We recoil at ballplayers who artificially inflate their bodies to achieve the unachievable, but the track gods want to force a woman to do the opposite: take drugs to counter her natural biological tendencies.
We have come to realize that gender is more complicated than XX or XY chromosomes or even obvious physical traits. There is a legitimate debate about whether transgender athletes in transition should be allowed to compete according to the gender with which they identify. But, by all objective standards, Caster is a woman in every sense. She shouldn’t have to take drugs to prove it.
