“Attacks on trans people have consistently led to more policing and regulation of ALL women’s bodies”
BY ROISIN TEELING, IMAGE BY PAALSO PAAL SØRENSEN 2011, CC BY-SA 3.0 / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The South African two-time Olympic 800m Champion, Caster Semenya, has blasted the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision mandating sex tests for female athletes to qualify for some categories. Semenya spoke at a press conference in Cape Town on 29 March, labelling the decision as “a disrespect for women.”
Last week, the IOC reinstated a ban on transgender athletes and a large number of intersex athletes who have experienced male puberty from competing in female events at the 2028 Summer Olympics and other future Olympic games.
Semenya shared her criticism of the policy at the press conference following a women’s race in Cape Town, sharing disappointment that the decision was made under the leadership of the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
“For me, personally, for her being a woman coming from Africa, knowing how African women or women in the global south are affected by that, of course, it causes harm,” said Semenya.
Athletes must undergo a one-time gene-screening sex test to be eligible, and will be considered as “not biologically female” if they are detected to have an SRY gene, found in the Y chromosomes. The committee said the new criteria will “ensure fairness and protect safety, particularly in contact sports”.
Similar chromosomal testing was used at the Games from 1968 to 1996, but the IOC later scrapped it after scientists raised doubts about its reliability.
“It came as a failure. And that’s why it was dropped,” Semenya said, questioning the need for women to justify their place in sport. “For you as a woman, why will you be tested to prove that you fit? You know, it’s like now we need to prove that we are worthy as women to take part in sports. That’s a disrespect for women.”
Caster Semenya has become a symbol of the struggle faced by hyperandrogenic athletes, waging a long-running battle to assert her rights since winning her first world 800m title in 2009. She is not alone in speaking out against the IOC’s new policy for female athletes.
US runner Nikki Hiltz criticised the decision in a series of Instagram stories, arguing it would have broader consequences.
“All Olympic athletes competing in women’s sports are now required to undergo genetic sex testing,” they wrote. “Attacks on trans people have consistently led to more policing and regulation of ALL women’s bodies. Everyone is hurt by transphobia.”
Hiltz, who won silver at the 2024 World Indoor Championships and gold at the 2019 Pan American Games, identifies as transgender and non-binary. Expanding on their criticism, they added: “Y’all already know where I stand on this but this policy is so f—ing stupid and is not solving a problem that exists. I don’t know who needs to hear this but ZERO trans women competed in the Paris Olympics. Only ONE trans woman weightlifter competed in Tokyo 2021 and she did not win a medal. Can we please stop obsessing over trans people? And idk maybe focus our time, energy, and resources into real problems women’s sports face?”
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