Female athletes whose tests detect the presence of male chromosomes will not be allowed to compete at world ranking competitions. Once passed, women won’t need to do the test again.
In a statement, Athletics Australia said it was one of more than 200 member federations that were guided by the rules and policies of World Athletics, including on fairness of competition.
Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya.Credit: AP
AA said it knew WA’s decision would cause emotional stress for some athletes and offered their support.
“We are acutely aware of the potential psychological impact on athletes of testing, and we take our responsibility to support our athletes to navigate this new process very seriously,” the AA statement said.
AA would now have all athletes tested in the next month ahead of September 1 and in time for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo starting September 13.
AA said it had been known since March that testing for all female athletes was to be introduced and Thursday’s announcement by WA provided further details of how that would occur and the time frame.
“Australian Athletics remains committed to supporting all our athletes through this process,” the statement said. “Our focus is on creating a safe environment that upholds athlete wellbeing alongside adhering to eligibility requirements for international representation in Tokyo.”
Athletics has spent years debating eligibility criteria to compete in women’s events, amid questions over biological advantages for transgender athletes and those with differences of sex development (DSD) – conditions where there is a discrepancy between a person’s external and internal genitals, sometimes known as intersex.
World Athletics bans transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events, while it requires female DSD athletes whose bodies produce high testosterone levels to lower those levels to be eligible.
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Earlier this year, a working group found those rules were not tight enough, with a pre-clearance test for the SRY gene being one of several recommendations the group made for revised rules.
The test was also approved in May by World Boxing, the governing body for the sport’s amateurs, when they introduced mandatory sex testing for all boxers.
Earlier this month, the European Court upheld a 2023 ruling that two-time 800 metres Olympic champion Caster Semenya’s appeal to a Swiss Federal Tribunal against regulations that barred her from competing had not been properly heard. The South African runner has naturally high levels of testosterone.
Semenya was appealing against World Athletics regulations that female athletes with DSDs medically reduce their testosterone levels.
Semenya won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but has since been effectively banned from high-level competitions.
With Michael Gleeson, Reuters