Caster Semenya running into controversy: genes, gender and sport

Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2019.

A recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival on Sunday 3 November 2019.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled women with naturally higher levels of testosterone cannot compete in women’s sport events unless they reduce their testosterone with medication. CAS was hearing an appeal by a South African runner, Caster Semenya, against a ruling by the governing body of athletics, the IAAF, that she cannot compete in certain events having been born with a condition leading to unusually high testosterone levels. What does this mean for elite sport? And can we separate sports from other areas of society in which discrimination against people with different sexual developments is taboo?

SPEAKERS

DR CARLTON BRICK

lecturer in sociology, School of Media, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland

DR SILVIA CAMPORESI

director of bioethics and society postgraduate programme, King’s College London; co-author, Bioethics, Genetics and Sport

GEORGINA NEWCOMBE

student, Durham University; athlete and footballer; Living Freedom alumnus

DR JOEL NATHAN ROSEN

associate professor of sociology and anthropology, Moravian College; author, The Erosion of the American Sporting Ethos

DR EMILY RYALL

reader in applied philosophy, University of Gloucestershire; author, Philosophy of Sport: key questions

CHAIR: GEOFF KIDDER

director, membership and events, Academy of Ideas; convenor, AoI Book Club