Athletes should compete drug free

At a time when doping is being exposed and the world of sport is trying to increase integrity, it is outrageous that an athlete would be forced to alter their chemistry if they want to compete in specific events.
On Wednesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against 28-year-old South African runner Caster Semenya’s appeal case against the world governing body for track and field, the International Association of Athletics Federations.
The female athlete is intersex and is said to have higher than average levels of testosterone than other women. What is being referred to as a landmark case and a human rights issue, the ruling upholds a decision that Semenya would have to lower her testosterone levels to five nanomoles per litre of blood if she wants to compete in the 800 metre race but she is allowed to compete in the 400 and 1,500 in her natural state.
Semenya is not alone. Other elite athletes have higher than normal levels of testosterone, it’s part of what makes them so fast.
Should we cap male athletes’ testosterone levels when they are off the charts, which they can be.
Elite athletes of both sexes have many genetic advantages over the rest of us. And although it feels very unfair to us sloths, these athletes have a natural ability that cannot be denied.
No athlete should be required to alter their body chemistry, nor should they be allowed to take enhancing drugs.
At a time when the world is embracing people and all of their anomalies in terms of gender and sexual orientation, this is a setback. People don’t fit into neat categories as humans have wanted to believe for too long.
Watching from the sidelines, sports fans idolize the elite athletes who make it to the top of their sport. Now, athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) are being penalized for what, being too good? It’s ridiculous.