The legal representatives of South African athlete Caster Semenya believe that a recent correction to a critical testosterone study in the British Journal of Sport Medicine opens a new avenue in their application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), to set aside World Athletics regulations that restrict her participation, writes MedicalBrief.
Semenya was not allowed to defend her double Olympic 800 metres title at the Tokyo Olympics under rules prohibiting athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) from competing internationally at distances from 400m to one mile unless they take hormone-lowering medication.
But World Athletics are facing calls from her legal representatives to scrap the regulations after the governing body’s scientists admitted some of their findings were “on a lower level of evidence”.
The evidence, gathered by two World Athletics scientists in 2017, found a performance increase in females with high testosterone levels over those with low levels of 1.8 per cent for 800m and 2.7 per cent for 400m.
However, the British Journal of Sports Medicine – which published the original evidence – has now released a “correction” to that 2017 paper, causing campaigners to argue the rules should be ditched immediately. Semenya’s lawyers have also questioned why it was not released until days after the Olympics concluded.
Discussing potential links between high levels of testosterone and improved performance in women, Stephane Bermon, director of World Athletics’ Health and Science Department, and his predecessor Pierre-Yves Garnier, wrote: “To be explicit, there is no confirmatory evidence for causality in the observed relationships reported. We acknowledge that our 2017 study was exploratory.”
They add: “With this in mind, we recognise that statements in the paper could have been misleading by implying a causal inference.
“Specifically, ‘Female athletes with high fT [testosterone] levels have a significant competitive advantage over those with low fT in 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 800 m, hammer throw, and pole vault.’
“This statement should be amended to: ‘High fT levels in female athletes were associated with higher athletic performance over those with low fT in 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 800 m, hammer throw, and pole vault.’”
The scientists conclude that their findings are “on a lower level of evidence” and should be viewed as “exploratory, nothing else, that is, not confirmatory or evidence for a causal relationship.”
Telegraph Sport reports that Semenya unsuccessfully challenged the regulations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Switzerland’s Supreme Court and is now awaiting a hearing at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). “This is very significant new information,” Semenya’s lawyer Gregory Nott, of Norton Rose Fulbright, told Telegraph Sport on the emergence of new evidence.
He questioned why World Athletics waited until after the Olympic Games to release the report. “We are in the midst of the European Court of Human Rights case and will be discussing with our London QC and the whole legal team how to introduce the information into the proceedings. World Athletics have recently given notice of their wish to intervene in the European Court of Human Rights proceedings and we would hope that they will now support setting aside the regulations.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Semenya row: Study shows testosterone boosts female athletic performance
Sama backs Caster against the IAAF on hormone manipulation
Caster wins Olympic gold and runs into another medical storm