IAAF PRESS RELEASE

The IAAF has responded to a news report published on 13th February, and later amended, in The Times of London ahead of landmark hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sports next week in respect to Caster Semenya's case.

Commonwealth 2018 Gold Medalist Semenya, along with South Africa’s athletics association is challenging the IAAF’s new eligibility rules that would oblige DSD runners in women’s middle-distance races to have significantly reduced levels of testosterone for the previous six months.

But the World Athletic ruling body in its response said: "The IAAF is not classifying any DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) athlete as male. To the contrary, we accept their legal sex without question, and permit them to compete in the female category". 

"However if a DSD athlete has testes and male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in haemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women".

"Therefore, to preserve fair competition in the female category, it is necessary to require DSD athletes to reduce their testosterone down to female levels before they compete at international level."

The IAAF strongly believes that Women with normal female testosterone levels will not have any chance to win as DSD and transgender athletes will dominate the podiums and prize money in sport,” and this will kill the idea of women championship IAAF Lawyer Jonathan Taylor told The Times.