Testosterone Rule Holds Back More Female Olympians
August 2, 2021
Even as they advanced to the 200-meter finals at the Olympics, two female runners are banned from competing in their favored event, the 400-meter race, because of their naturally high testosterone levels. The same rules kept two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya from competing in the 800-meter race, her specialty. In Issues, Roger Pielke Jr. and Madeleine Pape, a former Olympian, maintain that the testosterone regulations derive from improperly structured and poorly analyzed research. They offer an alternative regulatory approach that would maintain female-male competition categories while respecting the actual biological and genetic complexity of female athletes.