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Last week it was announced that 2 athletes from Namibia will be excluded from participating in the Tokyo Olympics. They do not meet the testosterone rules of the event. Why is that?

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi qualified for different distances. But the international athletics federation World Athletics found that they performed suspiciously well. After which the organisation ordered them to undergo medical tests to determine their sex characteristics.

These tests showed that the testosterone levels of both athletes are higher than allowed. They are not allowed to compete in the 400 and 800 metres.

The same happened to Caster Semenya a few years ago. This South African athlete is also not allowed to compete in the 400 metres at athletic tournaments. Her testosterone values are also 'too high' according to the International Athletics Federation.

Athletics has a long history of excluding women who perform well. The list of female elite athletes who have been excluded because of these discriminatory rules within women's sports is becoming quite long. For example, elite athletes Annet Negesa from Uganda, Francine Niyonsaba from Burundi, Margaret Wambui from Kenya, and Dutee Chand from India were also excluded from competitions in recent years. In the Netherlands, Foekje Dillema was already banned in 1950 because she was not considered feminine enough - she too probably had a naturally high testosterone level.

Sports organisations say that these women will only be allowed to compete again if they have their testosterone reduced by medication or surgery. To be clear, these are healthy women who were born as women, raised as women and did not even know they had naturally high testosterone levels until testing.

World Athletics set the testosterone rules based on research from 2017, which concluded that a higher testosterone level, gives an advantage over other athletes. But research from 2019 shows, that those conclusions are unreliable. Yet, the testosterone rules still apply.

In short, in elite sports, women are not allowed to have high testosterone levels. Is that fair?

Everyone's body is different. Some have long legs, others a large lung capacity. These kinds of body characteristics all influence sports performance. Yet there are no rules about lung capacity. Or mandatory operations to shorten legs that are too long. Leg length and lung capacity can give an advantage in elite sports, yet that is not seen as a problem.

The amount of testosterone in a person's body is seen as a problem. It is assumed that men always have high testosterone levels and women always have low testosterone levels. And that the level of testosterone has a great influence on sports performance. However, this is not true. Each person has their own set of sex characteristics. Two of these characteristics include the amount of testosterone, as well as the sensitivity to testosterone, which differs per person - regardless of sex or gender. There are big differences between men and other men and between women and other women. Some women have higher testosterone levels than some men.

Even more important is how your body deals with testosterone. This is different for everyone. For example, some women with high testosterone levels do not perform well in sport, while many people expect them to excel. The reverse is also true: prize-winners can have a surprisingly low testosterone level. So, a high testosterone level does not automatically lead to better sports performance!

The fact that people find testosterone levels so important is probably due to the idea that the testosterone level determines how manly someone is. In reality, testosterone is only a small part of a large system of hormones, genes and other sex characteristics that determine your sex. Moreover, your sex characteristics do not determine whether you are a man or a woman; there is no laboratory test for that. But the most important thing is that these women simply have high testosterone levels. That should be just as accepted as other athletes having long legs, a large lung capacity or a body that recovers very quickly.

Due to various misunderstandings, poor scientific research and societal ideas about sex, women with high testosterone levels are unjustly excluded from elite sports. Also, these women are often subjected to sex testing and medical treatments that violate their human rights.

It is high time that elite sport becomes inclusive for everyone. Without human rights violations. Perhaps it would be better to divide people based on talent, effort, age, fitness, financial support, leg length and lung capacity. But mostly we will need to accept that elite sport is always a bit unfair.

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