If you can’t beat them, whine about it until the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is forced to change the rules.

That seems to be the tactic employed by Caster Semenya’s 400 metre and 800 metre competitors, who can be found moaning to media outlets after every defeat the South African dishes out.

So, what measures are the IAAF implementing now? Here’s Sport24:

South Africa’s queen of the track Caster Semenya may be forced, once again, to lower her testosterone levels.

If she doesn’t, she will not be allowed to compete in her specialist 800m and 1 500m events.

…the IAAF will on Thursday announce a new set of rules for athletes with hyperandrogenism.

The report says that, once the rule changes have come into effect, Semenya, 27, will be forced to take daily medication to lower her testosterone levels.

If she doesn’t, she will be forced to compete in longer distances – or, effectively, quit the sport.

Here’s how thinly-veiled their decision is: the new rule will only apply to distances between 400 metres and 1 500 metres.

Quite convenient that.

This isn’t the IAAF’s first attempt to rein in Caster, either:

The IAAF introduced a similar rule in 2011 after Semenya’s dominant victory at the 2009 IAAF World Championships, and it had a major impact on her pace…

It did, because she only placed second at the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics. Until the woman who won both races, Mariya Savinova [below], was exposed as a drug cheat.

It will also sidestep the Court for Arbitration of Sport’s (CAS) 2015 decision to suspend regulations on hyperandrogenism in women’s athletics.

The decision doesn’t come completely out of left field, with the IAAF council last month approving a proposal to limit natural testosterone levels in women athletes competing in Caster’s favourite distances.

If you think she’s going to throw in the towel, think again, as NewsAU reports:

She has been publicly critical but complied with the new regulations in 2011 and in Australia last month hinted at a move up to longer distances, no doubt in anticipation of a development that is now expected to be confirmed this week.

South Africans aren’t the only ones who think the IAAF are full of nonsense, because various recent studies have cast aspersions on many of the governing body’s rulings:

Last year a Yale University professor raised concerns about the potential health risks of medically reducing testosterone levels…

Katrina Karkazis said: “Lowering testosterone can have serious lifelong health effects. If done via surgery, women are at high risk for osteoporosis.”

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, a chronic disease epidemiologist in Australia, wrote in The Guardian in 2016: “Semenya’s athleticism was attributed to a single molecule — testosterone — as though it alone earned her the gold, undermining at once her skill, preparation and achievement.”

Karkazis also says it is completely wrong to compare naturally occurring testosterone to testosterone doping and pointed out the inaccuracy in referring to it as a male sex hormone.

Others argue that if athletes like Semenya are abiding by anti-doping rules there is no justification for denying them the chance to compete.

“If we implement it the way the sport has wanted to, we could actually prevent female athletes from competing and that seems to be a human rights violation,” said Paul Melia, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. “Testosterone naturally occurring is not a banned substance.’

Almost like it’s a coordinated attack or something.

I would say that those 5 000m and 10 000m athletes should start looking over their shoulders, but if Caster does step up to those longer distances it’s her backside they’ll be staring at.

[sources:sport24&newsau]