More recently, the ruling was temporarily suspended, and the issue is far from being resolved. In fact, the court case is just the latest chapter in the Olympic champion’s decade-long battle with athletic authorities. Ever since she became the 800-meter world champion in 2009, the IAAF has gone through several iterations of their regulations for women athletes, and Caster Semenya has been on the receiving end of each successive policy.
Throughout that time, the media has been following Semenya’s story closely and shaping a narrative that is often misguided or inaccurate. “Gender,” “sex,” “intersex,” “transgender,” and other terminology have often been misapplied when discussing the controversy. To be clear, Caster Semenya is not transgender, but the lack of a standard for using terms like “sex” and “gender” has left many people confused about the actual circumstances of the case and Caster Semenya’s involvement in it.
The core issue is that “sex” is different from “gender” and there are many ways a person’s sex can develop beyond typical categories for men and women. When athletic officials try to divide athletes by sex, the line drawn changes depending on what criteria they use.
But this controversy started long before 2009. In this video, we piece together the underlying issues relevant to sex testing in sports and contextualize them within the long history of athletic officials scrutinizing women athletes. By covering the debate surrounding Caster Semenya, along with historical events concerning Polish sprinter Ewa Klobukowska and Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, this video explains why athletic officials have repeatedly failed in their attempt to establish definitive sex testing regulations for female competitors.
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Sourse: vox.com
