At the doha 2019 world championships the women's 800 was claimed to be a "new" race, what does this mean and how will it affect the future of women's middle distance.
“The New 800m” was described by the announcers as the women’s heats were about to begin for the IAAF world championship in Doha. The idea of a new 800m seems absurd at first, the distance hasn’t changed, the race itself is still a mid-distance intense sprint race, but something big changed in May of 2019.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that the IAAF, the track and field governing body, can ban any and all female athletes from the 800m race who have “abnormally” high levels of natural, non-doping, testosterone. High levels are considered an amount of 10 nmol/L or higher. The top three women in the sport, at the forefront Caster Semenya, were devastated. They were told they can not run in the event they had been training their whole lives for. All because of something they were born with. For more information on this situation and other discussion of ergogenic aids check out my other article.
As the women lined up for the world championship, only 4 months after the ruling, the previous Olympic and World champions were nowhere to be found. Athletes had been discussing their negative impact on the 800m for years after Caster Semenya debuted in track and field during a championship in 2009 at Berlin. Some athletes made despicable remarks regarding her gender identity and other athletes wanted the race to be “fair” again. But, the idea of “fair” in track and field, does not really exist. Athletes will break records and win gold, and then another athlete will come around a few or several years later and be the new champion. This is how sport works, athletes push each other to improve. However, Mrs. Semenya’s performance was something special, she was finishing first with her competitors sometimes 40-50 meters behind her, not even close to her times. So if someone stands out and is just “too good” is it ok to remove this outlier and even out the field. Or, are you just hurting the sport, giving athletes who aren’t the best the gold.
When Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda zoomed pass American Ajee Wilson in the final 150m I thought: where would Caster be in this race,
statically she would be about 5 seconds ahead of Nakaayi. While winning, the expression on Nakaayi’s face, after beating favorite Wilson of the U.S., was indescribable... just look at the image. She is the 2019 World Champion in the “new” 800m women’s race. Her performance was great, this is not to take away what she did, and all the athletes who competed and finished in the top places. However, is it fair to call her the world champion, when women out there have times as much as 5 seconds faster, but were not allowed to compete. Ask any of the women out on the line at Doha, and they will probably have some respect for Semenya and the other 800m champions banned, but they also have a strong passion to compete against athletes with similar like-ness. The evidence is there no doubt, Semenya and the other medalist from the olympics have an advantage, but what does leaving them out of Doha give to the sport. Is the “new 800m” a step forward, or a leap backwards for women’s mid-distance track and field. As well, with Tokyo 2020 soon approaching how will the conversation change about the 800m performances by these women. Personally, I say let them run, but on the other hand, I think the other women have undeniable talent that should be recognized. How can we grow if we don’t embrace the runners who are extraordinary.