Via Marginal Revolution, I find the case of Caster Semenya fascinating. Caster is one of the great female 800 meter sprinters. She, and others like her, are great because they naturally produce high levels of testosterone, so high that her identity as a female is called into question. For a while, she was forced to take drugs to lower her testosterone because her levels were ruled unfair to other female athletes.

The debate around hyperandrogenism is as poignant as it is thorny. In simplistic summary it asks us to decide whose rights need to be protected most. Is it the small minority of women whose exceedingly high testosterone levels, which their bodies produce naturally, categorise them as intersex athletes? Should their human rights be ring-fenced so that, as is the case now following an overturned legal ruling, they are free to compete as women without being forced to take medication that suppresses their testosterone? Or should the overwhelming majority of female athletes be protected – so they are not disadvantaged unfairly against faster and stronger intersex competitors?

“We all differ in our opinions,” Mothowagae says, “but for me it’s a closed case. Caster is allowed to compete. Cas have made their ruling.”

In July 2015 Cas, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, overturned the 2011 IAAF regulations that curbed testosterone levels in female athletes. They also suspended hyperandrogenism regulations for two years.

Note you never see this debate about male athletes. Men with high testosterone simply have natural talent. One could argue that the PED baseball scandals was really just the lower testosterone athletes leveling the playing field versus the higher testosterone athletes. The East German swimming officials who created these intersex athletes artificially could also say they were leveling the playing field. I find it disturbing that doping one way to level the field is considered a great sin, but doping the other way to level the playing field is perfectly fine. I’m glad these intersex athletes are now allowed to compete and show off their natural talents.

I also understand why this upsets some people. There is a narrative about athletes working hard and over-coming adversity to become the best, the “Up Close and Personal” of ABC fame. If it’s just the best athletes have the most testosterone, the story is less compelling.