The legacy of Caster Semenya: examining the normative basis for the construction of categories in sport

After her case against International Association for Athletics Federation (IAAF) 1 was dismissed by the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) on 1 May 2019, she has switched to football later in the year.1 Semenya’s case may have come to its legal conclusion, however it has generated an aporia regarding the binary classification in athletics, which has yet to be solved.2 It is time the implications of the fair equality of opportunity (FEO) principle as a normative basis for the construction of categories in sport are taken seriously to move forward the debate on unfair advantages in sport. Loland conditionally justifies restricting the women’s category to athletes with testosterone levels below a certain threshold, on the basis of the FEO principle, and of a distinction between stable (eg, biological sex, age, body size) and dynamic inequalities between athletes (eg, genetic predispositions).3 While I concur with Loland 3 that there might be an in-principle difference between testosterone, which has long-lasting effects on skeletal system; and genetic variations, whose outcome will be to a greater degree the interplay of genotype and phenotype, I do not think that such a distinction can be drawn, which is independent of the existing binary classification. Mäntyranta (1937–2013) was a Finnish cross-country skier and Olympics medallist active in the 60s and early 70s.5 A study carried out by de la Chapelle et al conducted over 200 members of his extended family found that Mäntyranta was affected by a rare genetic mutation in the erythropoietin receptor gene, or EPOR gene, leading to a constitutive activation of the receptor.6 The result is an enhanced production of erythrocytes, which leads to an increase in hemoglobin concentration in blood, and conferred to Mäntyranta a property advantage in competition.7 The constitutive activation of EPOR, independent of any signal by the environment, is, by definition, a stable factor.