World Athletics sets deadline for women's genetic testing

Ap

La Jornada Newspaper, Thursday, July 31, 2025, p. a11

Monaco. Clarifying the promised rules on women's eligibility, World Athletics has set Wednesday, September 1, as the deadline for athletes to pass genetic testing to compete in the next world championships.

World Athletics announced in March that it would require chromosome testing using oral swabs or dried blood spot tests for female athletes to be eligible for elite competitions.

The next World Cup will kick off on September 13 in Tokyo, with September 1 being the closing date for registration and the date on which the regulations come into effect , the global governing body said in a statement.

The latest rule update provides certainty for the 2025 edition on an issue that has been controversial on the track and in multiple courts since Caster Semenya won her first world 800m title as a teenager in 2009.

Three weeks ago, Semenya won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, following the South African's challenge to an earlier version of athletics eligibility rules affecting athletes with medical conditions known as differences of sex development (DSD).

World Athletics drafted rules in 2018 requiring Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion, and other athletes with DSD to suppress their elevated natural testosterone levels to be eligible for women's international competition. Semenya refused to take medication.

Now, the agency requires a once-in-a-lifetime test to determine female athletes who it says are biologically male with a Y chromosome.

We're saying that at the elite level, to compete in the women's category, you have to be biologically female , said Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics.

▲ Boxer Ricardo El Niño Sandoval, born in California but of Mexican descent, became the new unified WBC and WBA flyweight champion after defeating local boxer Kenshiro Teraji by split decision (117-110, 115-112, and 113-114) in Japan. This is for my mom and dad, who are watching me, and for all the people of Sinaloa. Let's take the belts home and enjoy ourselves , the boxer declared after the fight. Photo: Golden Boy Boxing

La Jornada Newspaper, Thursday, July 31, 2025, p. a11