14 DAY TRIAL // 18-year-old Caster Semenya, who ran away with the 800m world champion title last week, has three times the normal levels of testosterone in her body, as initial tests have revealed, a source close to the athlete shares for Fox Sports. While this doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a male or has a genetic condition, it might suggest doping to enhance her performance, experts believe.
The controversy began shortly after the South African teenager won the title at the World Athletics Championship, as she managed to pull the best time recorded this year in all competitions around the world. Her well-defined musculature, as well as talk of her refusing to wear women’s clothes prompted the International Association of Athletics Federations to ask her to submit herself to gender testing in view of critics saying she had not won the title fairly. Initial tests do, indeed, suggest that something might be amiss, as they have returned three times the testosterone levels recorded in the “normal female” body, Fox Sports says.
“A source close to an investigation being conducted by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport’s governing body, said the 18-year-old had returned three times the amount of testosterone which might be expected from a ‘normal’ female. IAAF experts are now trying to determine whether the exceptionally high levels of the male hormone levels are a result of Semenya being more biologically male than female, or whether there is an implication of doping.” the aforementioned sports publication informs.
Nevertheless, experts in hormone therapy believe these high levels of the male hormone represent an uncommon occurrence in athletes, since they should actually register decreased levels of testosterone because of stress. Dr. Michael Elstein, a hormone therapy expert based in Sydney, is explaining for Fox Sports that this could actually be a telling sign that Semenya has been taking drugs to enhance her performance in the competition, and not that she’s more male than female.
“If the testosterone levels are so high then that’s suspicious. Athletes’ levels are usually not high. If anything they actually may be low because of the stress of competition and release of cortisol, which is a stress hormone and can push testosterone down. It does not point to her being a male, but it does point to her advancing her performance with testosterone. The question is whether the testosterone is naturally occurring or introduced... that’s what the IAAF needs to determine.” Dr. Elstein tells Fox Sports.
The IAAF is yet to confirm the above-mentioned tests, but it has admitted to initiating the investigation after finalist Cusma Piccione complained she had been “beaten by a man” in the competition in Berlin.