New Track Ruling Extends Ban on Some Athletes
March 24, 2023
The World Athletics Council has extended its regulation prohibiting some female athletes with differences in sex development from competing in certain track events. The rule requires the women, including Olympic champion Caster Semenya, to undergo hormone-suppressing treatment for six months before competing. In Issues, Roger Pielke Jr. and Madeleine Pape critique what they consider the flawed rationale behind such regulation. Instead, the authors propose an alternative classification methodology that “reflects the actual biological complexity of sex and the heterogeneity among female athletes while also respecting their biological sex as assigned and maintained since birth.”