Caster Semenya Plans to Run 3000-Meter Race, Which Doesn’t Require Her to Limit Testosterone – The New York Times

Caster Semenya, the two-time 800-meter Olympic champion from South Africa, plans to run the 3,000 meters next month at the Prefontaine Classic at Stanford University, temporarily avoiding a new track and field rule that restricts testosterone levels of intersex athletes in certain women’s events.

Semenya, 28, has said she will not undergo hormone therapy to lower her naturally elevated testosterone levels, a decision that, barring a successful appeal, would make her ineligible for the 800 at this year’s world track championships in Doha, Qatar, and at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Intersex athletes such as Semenya face restrictions in women’s events from 400 meters to one mile, distances that require both speed and endurance. Because the 3,000 meters, the equivalent of 1.86 miles, is beyond that range, Semenya can compete without having hormone therapy to limit her testosterone levels. It is not an Olympic event.

On May 1, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld testosterone restrictions set forth by track and field’s world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, or the I.A.A.F. The court ruled by a 2-1 vote that the restrictions were discriminatory but also a “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” means of achieving the I.A.A.F.’s goal of preserving a level playing field in women’s track events.

The testosterone restrictions apply to athletes with a disorder of sexual development known as 46, XY. Such athletes competing in women’s events have a rare chromosomal makeup — both an X chromosome and a Y chromosome in each cell — that has long been defined as a standard male pattern. Women have typically been defined genetically by two X chromosomes. Athletes defined as intersex often have ambiguous genitalia.

Athletes with this disorder of sexual development can produce testosterone in the male range, according to an I.A.A.F.-backed study, and gain an unfair advantage in muscle strength and oxygen-carrying capacity in certain events.

Intersex athletes who want to participate in women’s track events from 400 meters to the mile will have to take hormone-suppressing drugs and reduce testosterone levels below five nanomoles per liter for six months before competing, then maintain those lowered levels.

Most women, including elite female athletes, have natural testosterone levels of 0.12 to 1.79 nanomoles per liter, the I.A.A.F. said, while the typical male range after puberty is much higher, at 7.7 to 29.4 nanomoles per liter. No female athlete would have natural testosterone levels of five nanomoles per liter or higher without a disorder of sex development or tumors, the I.A.A.F. has said.

Semenya and her supporters challenged the notion that biological sex is so finite and binary. Semenya has called the I.A.A.F. rule medically unnecessary as well as “discriminatory, irrational, unjustifiable” and a violation of the rules of sport and universally recognized human rights. She accused the I.A.A.F. of specifically targeting her. Her lawyers argued that “her unique genetic gift should be celebrated, not regulated.”

Semenya will run at the Prefontaine Classic on June 30. The meet is usually held in Eugene, Ore., but was moved to Stanford because Hayward Field at the University of Oregon is undergoing renovation.

Beyond that meet, Semenya’s future at major international competitions remains uncertain. She would have to choose shorter or longer events in which to try to compete at the Olympics or world championships, though she would not be considered a medal contender in the next option on either end of the spectrum — the 200 meters or the 5,000 meters.

Semenya’s other choices would be to compete against men, to participate in events for intersex athletes if any are offered or to retire from high-profile competitions.

Tom Jordan, the longtime Prefontaine race director, told the BBC that he had been asked by Semenya’s agent to let her enter the meet and that he was happy to oblige.

The field for the 3,000 will be stacked with international stars, including Hellen Obiri of Kenya, the reigning world outdoor champion in the 5,000; Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, the 2016 world indoor champion in the 1,500; and Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia, the 2018 world indoor champion in the 1,500 and 3,000.

“I’m as curious as anyone to see how she will fare against the world’s best distance runners,” Jordan told the BBC.