![]() And yet, she confessed that she lived in constant fear of being banned. At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, she won silver medals in the 100m and the 200m, breaking India’s 16-year wait for a 200m Asian Games medal. While she acknowledges that biological differences are a part of competitive sports, she also pointed out that testosterone levels can be increased by taking drugs and that they have always been under scrutiny due to doping tests.Īfter her ban was lifted, Chand fought back to set a new national record of 7.28 seconds in the 60m sprint at the 2016 Asian Indoor Championships in Doha. ThePrint spoke to Mallika Dang, a former athlete and founder of GoFit, a fitness training company, who echoes the same sentiment as Usha. Usha who say it is unfair for other female athletes who put in so much of work and train in the best way possible to ultimately be defeated like athletes like Semenya because of her testosterone levels. On the flip side, there are people like Indian track legend and coach P.T. Yet, his body parts were not scrutinised, nor was he questioned. He also had a much larger wing-span, which gave him an advantage while swimming. Lactic acid causes fatigue, thus he had an upper hand because he could train and exert more without getting tired. In training centres, where girls used to share rooms, I was kept separately.”Ĭritics have called out the double standards in athletics, as the world had hailed swimmer Michael Phelps as a genetic marvel, since his body produced only half the amount of lactic acid compared to other athletes. My friends used to start asking what’s wrong with me, and started to avoid me. In an interview to BBC Hindi in 2015, Chand had also said: “I know people started suspecting whether I was a woman or a man. In 2009, Semenya had said: “I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being.”Īlso read: Serena Williams is a black woman throwing a tantrum – and yes, she can be both Critics have argued that they protect a certain stereotypical image of women, and fail to acknowledge racial differences. Many have called the IAAF’s rules “racist” and “sexist”. This rule applies to women who race in track events from 400m up to the mile. The latest CAS ruling means that women like Semenya and Chand with high testosterone levels would have to compete with men or lower the levels of testosterone in their body. I feel sad for her (Semenya), she has been made to suffer like me.” In an interview to news agency AFP shortly after the decision, Chand said: “This is wrong. However, on 1 May, the CAS upheld the very same rules it suspended in 2015. It also suspended the IAAF’s hyperandrogenism rules for two years, and expressed its reservation over the lack of evidence regarding the degree of competitive advantage a hyperandrogenic athlete has. In a landmark ruling, the CAS questioned the validity of these arbitrary gender tests pertaining to naturally high testosterone levels in female athletes. The Athletics Federation of India barred her from participation, because she too had refused to take the pills.Ĭhand was banned from the sport for almost a year in 2015, but she challenged the IAAF rules and took her case before the CAS. ![]() She was supposed to be India’s big hope for an Olympic medal in athletics, but just before the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 she was dropped from the team because she failed a hormone test. The Odisha sprinter had broken national records at the age of 16, and won a bronze medal in the 200m at the age of 18 at the 2013 Asian Championships in Pune. ![]() ![]() Semenya’s high testosterone levels have been a topic of debate since 2009, and have never really gone away despite her gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, and at the 20 IAAF World Championships. But after the CAS ruling, Semenya is essentially barred from competing if she doesn’t take birth control pills for six months, something she has refused to do.Īlso read: The Haryana-Kerala domination of Indian sport is complete, this Asiad showsĬhand, too, has suffered due to the same medical condition - a high testosterone level caused by hyperandrogenism. ![]()
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