Missing Track Star Reignites Controversy
October 2, 2019
The women’s 800-meter race at the World Athletics Championships now under way was marked by the absence of the previous champion and Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, who along with all other females with elevated natural testosterone levels was banned from competing in races of this distance. In Issues, two researchers who have studied the interconnections between science, sport, and sex lay out in detail why the ban is fundamentally flawed and propose a more inclusive classification approach that better serves female athletes with genetic variations.