IAAF used me as a guinea pig, says Semenya

Newly released papers show a Swiss court ruled that Caster Semenya must take testosterone-limiting drugs to compete, despite admitting there is no evidence to support the ban on her running at 1500 metres and beyond.

The panel, which upheld the International Association of Athletics Federations' ban in May covering races of 400m up to a mile, agreed it was "speculation" to suggest athletes with differences of sex development (DSD) gained an unfair advantage over longer distances.

Caster Semenya says the IAAF have treated her as a guinea pig.Credit: AP

Semenya, whose specialist race is the 800m, said the full release of documents from the Court of Arbitration for Sport showed she was being used by the IAAF as "a human guinea pig".

Court papers reveal that the IAAF argued in court that Semenya is "biologically male" and that is the reason she should reduce her natural testosterone to be allowed to compete in female competitions. The two-time Olympic champion was described by the IAAF in the redacted papers as one of a number of "biologically male athletes with female gender identities".

The IAAF won the case at CAS, allowing it to implement testosterone limits for Semenya and other female athletes who it says were born with typical male chromosome patterns. However, the papers show that the panel disputed the ban beyond 800m.

"The panel has some concern about the inclusion of two events [1500m and one mile] within the category of restricted events on the basis [at least in part] of a speculative assumption that since female athletes who compete successfully in the 800m often also compete successfully in those longer events, it must follow that 46 XY DSD athletes are likely to enjoy a significant performance advantage over other female athletes in those two events," court papers say.

Semenya has since taken her fight against the regulations, which would force her to take medication to suppress her high level of the primary male sex hormone, to the Swiss Federal Court - a move that has indefinitely delayed the introduction of the testosterone limit. There has been no date set for the 28-year-old South African's appeal, but the battleground has been cleary laid out in the Cas ruling.

Both sides called experts on genetics, medical ethics and sports science, with the panel unanimously agreeing with Semenya's team that the regulations are "discriminatory" but, by a 2-1 verdict, deciding they were a "necessary, reasonable and proportionate" way of protecting the integrity of female athletics.

In a statement, Semenya said: "The IAAF used me in the past as a human guinea pig to experiment with how the medication they required me to take would affect my testosterone levels. Even though the hormonal drugs made me feel constantly sick, the IAAF now wants to enforce even stricter thresholds with unknown health consequences. I will not allow the IAAF to use me and my body again."

Semenya will get another chance to compete in her pet event, the 800 metres, when she competes at the Diamond League's Prefontaine Classic in California on June 30.

Meeting officials confirmed they have complied with a request from Semenya's representatives to change her entry from the 3000m race to the 800m event.

The race will be the first at the distance for the double Olympic champion since the Swiss Federal Tribunal issued a stay of the new IAAF regulations.

"Caster's representation requested that she be removed from the 3000 metres [where she was originally entered] to the 800 metres and we are happy to comply," meeting director Tom Jordan said in a telephone interview.

"Indications are she will be going for a fast time," said Jordan, who was busy lining up a competitive field for the race at Stanford University.

Semenya, unbeaten at the distance in 30 finals since 2015, has a personal best of 1:54.25, with the world record at 1:53.28.

The Telegraph, London, with Reuters