Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya has condemned the International Olympic Committee's new eligibility rules for women's events as "nonsense" and "unfair," urging affected athletes to mount a collective legal challenge.
The South African 800m gold medallist described the regulations as "heartbreaking" and driven by power rather than neutrality.
Semenya said: "The minute you start asking a woman to be tested to take part in sports, that's not dignity."
The 35-year-old directly challenged the scientific foundations of the policy.
She said: "She does not have any proof, there is no scientific proof about what has been said. It is an ideology of some male scientists who believe they can do what they want."
Semenya called on athletes to unite against the decision, telling Sky News: "I will encourage athletes to come together as a class action... because this does not make sense."
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, herself a former Olympic swimming champion, defended the regulations as grounded in medical expertise and essential for competitive integrity.
Coventry said: "As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts."
Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya has condemned the International Olympic Committee's new eligibility rules for women's events
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The Zimbabwean official emphasised that marginal differences at the elite level can determine medal outcomes, making it "absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category."
The IOC has cited research indicating males hold at least a 10 per cent advantage in most running and swimming events, with the gap exceeding 100 per cent in explosive power sports like boxing, where safety becomes an additional concern.
The new regulations, announced earlier this week and effective for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, restrict eligibility for women's events to biological females only.
Transgender athletes are barred entirely from female competitions, while those with Disorders of Sex Development must demonstrate they receive no performance-enhancing benefits from testosterone.
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Caster Semenya urged affected athletes to mount a collective legal challenge
|GETTY
A sole exception exists for DSD athletes with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, a rare condition, meaning they have not undergone male puberty.
Eligibility will be established through a one-time SRY gene screening, conducted via cheek swab or blood test. World Athletics and World Boxing already mandate this procedure.
The IOC previously employed SRY testing in the 1980s but abandoned it in the following decade due to concerns about false-positive results.
Semenya first faced scrutiny over her eligibility in 2009 after winning gold at the world athletics championships aged 19, with verification tests subsequently revealing she possessed XY chromosomes and elevated natural testosterone levels alongside female characteristics.
Kirsty Coventry has repeatedly affirmed her desire to 'protect the female category' | GETTYDespite this, she secured Olympic titles at London 2012 and Rio 2016, along with three World Championship golds.
Her career was curtailed when World Athletics introduced testosterone reduction requirements in 2018, which she refused to follow.
Legal challenges at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Supreme Court proved unsuccessful, though she achieved a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights last year.
Pressure on the IOC intensified following Paris 2024, when boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting claimed gold medals amid disputed gender eligibility claims from the International Boxing Association.
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