Caster Semenya has argued that she is "unquestionably a woman". AFP/File/Fabrice COFFRINI
South Africans are showing their support for athlete Caster Semenya as she gears up for a difficult battle with track and field’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The hashtag #WeStandByCaster has inspired an outpouring of support for the athlete by her fellow countrymen.
Semenya is challenging the IAAF’s proposed rules that would force her to lower her testosterone levels.
READ MORE: Navratilova backs Semenya ahead of IAAF gender rule hearing
The body released a statement saying athletes who “have testes or testosterone levels in the male range” who want to compete as female are expected to drop their testosterone levels to the “female range” in order to do so.
The athlete hit back, with her lawyers issuing a statement saying she was “unquestionably a woman” and calling on her to be “respected and treated as any other athlete”.
The South African government has said the rules proposed by IAAF specifically target Semenya and has called them a “gross violation” of her human rights.
The controversial rules would force so-called “hyperandrogenic” athletes or those with “differences of sexual development” (DSD) to take drugs to lower testosterone levels below a prescribed amount if they wished to compete.
The rules were to have been introduced last November but have been put on hold pending this week’s hearings at the Lausanne-based CAS which Semenya is expected to attend. A judgement is expected by the end of March.
The issue is highly emotive.
READ MORE: Semenya takes gender rule challenge to sports court
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.
But in a statement, it added: “If a DSD athlete has testes and male levels of testosterone, they get the same increases in bone and muscle size and strength and increases in haemoglobin that a male gets when they go through puberty, which is what gives men such a performance advantage over women.”
(Compiled by Daniel Friedman. Additional reporting by ANA)
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