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World Athletics Sets September 1 Deadline for Female Eligibility Gene Tests Ahead of Tokyo Championships

World Athletics Sets September 1 Deadline for Female Eligibility Gene Tests Ahead of Tokyo Championships
Source: Reuters

 

Track and field’s global governing body has set September 1 as the final date for female athletes to complete mandatory genetic testing if they wish to compete at the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo.

World Athletics confirmed on Wednesday that athletes will need to undergo chromosome testing via cheek swabs or dry blood-spot samples to be eligible for elite-level women’s events. The new regulations, first announced in March, aim to establish what the organisation calls “biological criteria” for the female category.

“The closing date for entries and the date the regulations come into effect is September 1,” World Athletics said in a statement. The championships are set to open on September 13 in Tokyo.

The issue of eligibility in women’s athletics has sparked fierce debate since 2009, when South African star Caster Semenya won her first 800m world title as a teenager. Athletes with “differences in sex development” (DSD) have since faced regulations requiring them to lower naturally high testosterone levels to compete. Semenya refused to take medication and has been barred from her preferred events for years.

Last month, Semenya won a partial legal victory at the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that her appeal had not received a fair hearing in Switzerland. However, the ruling did not overturn World Athletics’ eligibility framework.

Now, the Monaco-based federation has introduced what it calls a “once-in-a-lifetime test” to determine whether an athlete carries a Y chromosome, which it deems the defining factor for competing in the women’s category.

“We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.

The tests will be carried out under the supervision of national federations, with results expected within two weeks. World Athletics said it will cover up to $100 per test to reduce financial barriers for athletes.

“The SRY test is extremely accurate and the risk of false negative or positive is extremely unlikely,” the federation said in its statement.

The new framework merges rules for both DSD and transgender athletes. Transitional provisions allow a limited number of known DSD athletes to continue competing if they are already taking medication to suppress testosterone. There are currently no transgender women competing at the elite international level under existing regulations.

Semenya, now 34, is unlikely to return to elite competition but may see her case return to Switzerland’s federal court in Lausanne, where her original appeal against earlier regulations was rejected.

Her long-running legal fight has become a landmark case in the debate over fairness, biology and inclusion in women’s sports — an issue that continues to divide athletes, legal experts, and fans alike as the Tokyo championships approach.

With input from Al Jazeera

Michelle Larsen

Michelle Larsen is a 23-year-old journalist and editor for Wyoming Star. Michelle has covered a variety of topics on both local (crime, politics, environment, sports in the USA) and global issues (USA around the globe; Middle East tensions, European security and politics, Ukraine war, conflicts in Africa, etc.), shaping the narrative and ensuring the quality of published content on Wyoming Star, providing the readership with essential information to shape their opinion on what is happening. Michelle has also interviewed political experts on the matters unfolding on the US political landscape and those around the world to provide the readership with better understanding of these complex processes.