Olympics 800m champion Caster Semenya of South Africa went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday to challenge proposed rules that could force her to lower her testosterone levels.
Semenya made no comment as she arrived at the court here for the start of a week-long hearing that is likely to define the rest of the 28-year-old’s career.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said it was introducing the rules to create a “level playing field” for other female athletes.
The controversial measures would force so-called “hyperandrogenic” athletes or those with “differences of sexual development” (DSD) to take drugs to lower their testosterone levels below a prescribed amount if they wish to continue competing.
The rules were to have been introduced last November but have been put on hold pending this week’s hearings. A judgement is expected by the end of March.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe said: “The regulations that we are introducing are there to protect the sanctity of fair and open competition.”
Athletics South Africa has strongly backed Semenya. Its chief advocate Norman Arendse said she would give evidence.
The issue is highly emotive. When British newspaper The Times reported last week that the IAAF would argue that Semenya should be classified as a biological male — a claim later denied by the IAAF — she hit back, saying she was “unquestionably a woman”.
In response to the report, the IAAF — stressing it was referring in general terms, not to Semenya in particular — denied it intended to classify any DSD athlete as male.
Semenya is not the only athlete potentially affected — the silver and bronze medallists in the Rio Olympics 800m, Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui, have also faced questions.