The international athletics federation decided Thursday that transgender athletes will not be allowed to participate in international events, and also agreed to new rules that will prevent Caster Semenya and other athletes with a difference in sexual development from competing.
In a pair of decisions sure to spark outrage, the World Athletics Council adopted the same rules passed for swimming last year, banning athletes who have transitioned from male to female and who have passed male puberty from participating. No athlete with these characteristics currently competes at the highest level of athletics.
The rule updates, for athletes with a difference in sexual development, affect 13 athletes, said Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics. One of them is Semenya, the two-time Olympic champion in the 800 meters who since 2019 has not been able to compete in that test.
Semenya and others have been able to compete in track events outside of the restricted range, from 400 meters to 1,600. But now they will have to take medication for six months to be able to compete.
Semenya has tried to compete in longer distance events. She placed 13th in her 5,000-meter heat at last year’s Worlds.
To compete in the Paris Olympics next year, the South African will have to undergo six months of hormonal control treatment, something she has said she will not do again, after complying with such treatment a decade ago under previous regulations.
