“Intersex” athletes will learn next month if they will be required to take drugs to suppress testosterone levels. Caster Semenya, whose testosterone levels are roughly three times that of an average woman, has already been banned once from competing and ordered to take hormone lowering drugs by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui have swept the board at international competitions, including the Rio Olympics, leading Britain’s Lynsey Sharp to complain that female athletes are effectively competing in “two separate races”.
New evidence presented by the IAAF shows that high testosterone levels could help a female athlete by up to 2.5 seconds. There is typically less than two seconds between runners in 800m heats.
Last month, scientists from the Monaco-based IAAF published a paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluding that female athletes with high testosterone had a “significant” competitive edge and called for the advantage to be taken into consideration.
Compared with women with the lowest levels of free testosterone in their blood, those in the top third performed better the 400m sprint (+2.73 percent), the 400m hurdles (+2.78 percent); the 800m hurdles (+1.78 percent); the hammer throw (+4.53 percent); and the pole vault (+2.94 percent).
The researchers noted that increased levels of testosterone could increase mental drive, aggressiveness, and encourage lean body mass and more efficient oxygen uptake. It may even help pole vaulters and hammer throwers by improving “visuospatial” awareness, the study concluded.
Stéphane Bermon, who holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology and led the research from the Monaco Institute of Sports Medicine and Surgery, said: “This study brings new evidence of the performance-enhancing effects of androgens in elite female athletes. Although long suspected to be the case, until now there was no proof.”
READ ALSO
READ ALSO