Indian sprinter Dutee Chand has revealed that she suffered regular “abuse” after she was banned last summer for failing a “gender test”.
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The view of the CAS panel is that further evidence is required as to the precise degree of performance advantage that hyperandrogenic female athletes would get over athletes with normal testosterone levels.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Monday the world athletics body failed to prove that women with naturally high levels of testosterone had a competitive edge.
Monday’s ruling cleared the way for the 19-year-old to compete again in both domestic and worldwide events after she was forced to sit out for about a year. Should the IAAF not file any scientific evidence within the twoyear period granted by the CAS Panel, the Hyperandrogenism Regulations will be declared void.
For more than a year, Dutee Chand wept herself to sleep and often got up during the night with nightmares of her career having come to an end.
Chand is hyperandrogenic, meaning she has naturally high levels of testosterone. Semenya won the 800-meter silver medal at the 2011 world championships and 2012 Olympics.
But Chand wasn’t interested in taking hormonal supplements or surgically altering her body, so she petitioned her disqualification. “I feel this verdict will pave the way for a more inclusive, fairer sporting culture”, she said. Her case compelled track’s governing body to devise new rules that would attempt to treat athletes with dignity and care. As a result, my performance steadily went down as reflected in the third position I secured in the national athletics at Chennai recently.
But critics have challenged the science involved, saying the link between testosterone and performance is unclear, and that testing is arbitrary and psychologically damaging.
“I always believed the ban would be lifted because I knew Dutee was not at fault”, says Saraswati, the sprinter’s elder sister and a prominent athlete herself.
“Kal raat bahut din ke baad mujhe chain ki neend aayi”, (After a long time I slept peacefully yesterday), revealed Dutee after a training session in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening. The regulation requires women with serum testosterone levels of 10 nmol/L or more “to show that they are androgen-resistant (and so derive no advantage from their elevated levels of testosterone) or else to bring those levels down below 10 nmol/L”.
“We had to follow IAAF rules or otherwise we will be suspended”.
James Bunting, one of a team of lawyers representing Chand, said the CAS decision “should have far-reaching consequences around the globe as numerous other sports organizations have adopted the same or similar hyperandrogenism policies, including the worldwide Olympic Committee”.
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She said the ruling meant she could now focus on qualifying for next year’s Olympics and improving her timings in her favourite 100 and 200-metre races.
