The IAAF has been accused of “blatant racism” by the ruling party of South Africa, the African National Congress, over its new regulations on testosterone levels. The rules limit the testosterone levels of female athletes competing over distances between 400m and a mile. The South African minister of sport, Tokozile Xasa, described them as “Caster Semenya Regulations as they are designed to disadvantage Caster in her career”. The ANC spokesman Pule Mabe also compared the new IAAF regulations to government policies in apartheid South Africa. The authors claimed to have found that “in certain events female athletes with high testosterone levels benefit from a 1.8% to 4.5% advantage over female athletes with lower testosterone levels”.

Source: The Guardian April 27, 2018 11:48 UTC