セメンヤ競技復帰

『「調子は万全ではない」 セメンヤのコーチが会見』
【ラッペーンランタ（フィンランド）】性別疑惑が晴れて女子選手として約11カ月ぶりにレースに復帰する昨年の世界陸上選手権女子800メートルの覇者、キャスター・セメンヤ（南アフリカ）を指導するセメ・コーチが14日、復帰戦（15日）を前に会場のフィンランドのラッペーンランタで記者会見し「調子は万全ではない。2分4秒台が出れば素晴らしい」と、世界選手権の優勝タイムである1分55秒45からは大きく遅れるとの見通しを示した。
ハルカネン・マネジャーは「できるだけ早く実戦に戻ることが重要だった」と説明。18日にもフィンランドのラピンラフティで開催される大会に出場し、10月の英連邦大会（インド）を目指すという。
（2010年7月14日　共同通信）

この問題について「6月末には結論を出す」としていたIAAFは、今月6日にセメンヤ選手の「女性」としての競技復帰を認めていた。
これを受けてセメンヤ選手は、「再び走れることを幸せに思う。大きな大会にもう一度出られるか不安だった。私につきまとう議論とも争っていきたい（by共同通信）」との声明を出していた。

『性別疑惑のセメンヤ、復帰初戦で優勝』
［ラッペーンランタ（フィンランド）］性別疑惑が取りざたされた陸上世界選手権の女子800メートル金メダリスト、キャスター・セメンヤ（南アフリカ、19）が15日、当地の競技会で復帰。女子800メートルに出場し、2分4秒22のタイムで優勝した。
昨年8月の世界選手権でマークした1分55秒45には遠く及ばなかったものの、セメンヤは「11カ月も競技から離れた後で、2分4秒台で走るのは簡単なことではない。自分の走りには満足している」とコメント。レースを重ねるごとに状態は良くなっていくだろうとの見通しを述べた。
セメンヤは今月6日に国際陸上競技連盟（IAAF）から女性としての競技への復帰を認められ、この日が復帰後初のレース。18日にもフィンランドで開かれる競技会に出場し、その後は南アフリカに戻って体づくりに取り組む予定だという。
（2010年7月16日　ロイター）

さらに18日には、Savo Gamesに出場し、2分2秒41で優勝している。
彼女は、昨年8月のベルリン世界陸上で優勝したが、大会前にセックスチェックを受けていたことを豪デーリー・テレグラフ紙がすっぱ抜いたため「性別疑惑」が公になった。
これに対して、南アのスポーツ・余暇相のマケンケシ・ストフィーレは、「第3次世界大戦ものだと考える。そのような決定に対しては最高レベルの抗議を行う」と徹底抗戦の構えを見せていた。
さらに事は、「われわれは不幸な状況に直面している。この国はプライバシーと人権の尊重を宣言しており、これらの原則と価値観に反する動きに対しては何らかの行動を起こす」というメディアのプライバシー侵害に対するジェイコブ・ズマ大統領の批判コメントにまで発展していた。
当初からIAAFの姿勢は一貫しており、報道合戦につながったデーリー・テレグラフ紙の報道に怒りをあらわにするとともに、「われわれはこれがIAAFの公式な見解ではないことを強調したい」と発表していた。
今回のIAAFの発表文には「医学チームの検討結果を受け入れ即時の競技復帰を認める。医学的な詳細は公表できず、IAAFはこの件についてこれ以上コメントしない」とだけ記され、判断の根拠や経緯には一切触れられていない。
これまでの経緯やプライバシーの問題を考えれば、当然の対応とも思われるが、この点について南アのスポーツ科学者であるNoakes博士の弟子であるTucker博士が言及している。

『Caster Semenya to return to competition: Reports from the IAAF』
It is being reported that Caster Semenya, South Africa's 800m World Champion, will be given the all clear to return to the track. Before getting carried away at the conclusion of what seemed a never-ending saga, let's remember that on no fewer than three occasions, the SA government have organized triumphant press conferences only to cancel them at the last minute to delay the announcement further.
However, on this occasion, a reputable source, the Telegraph, are reporting that the IAAF will make the announcement and not the SA government, which gives one more confidence that perhaps, this is the final decision. （…）
If it is indeed the case, then it will bring to an end 10 months of speculation, rumour, accusation, and denial. We've tried to follow the story, from its beginning in August last year, and there is not too much more to be said about why it has taken this long, and what may have happened over the last 10 months.
In the report by the Telegraph, I feel the most telling paragraph is this one:
"Her coach, Michael Seme, has admitted that she has not been training at 100 per cent due to the uncertainty over her future, while it is also believed that she has been undergoing medical treatment for an inter-sex condition."
That alleged treatment, which I also believe to have taken place, holds the key to why this has taken so long. The IAAF, you'll recall us discussing before, find themselves in a difficult situation of having to avoid discrimination against ANY athlete (not only Semenya, as the SA sports fraternity wanted to believe). So their obligation was to ensure equality of competition without discrimination. And there are a range of issues about this, from social to cultural, even religious, all of which have been had in various forms over the last 10 months.
However, from a sporting point of view (and my bias here is sporting performance), the requirement is to manage the case to ensure that all athletes receive fair competition. Therefore, treatment, to lower the testosterone levels and attempt to reduce any advantage as a result of high testosterone, would have had to take place, and that may be the reason this has taken so long to resolve.
Legal Tug of War
Because make no mistake, actually diagnosing the condition is a relatively simple procedure. Knowing what to do about it, not as simple. So over the last 8 or 9 months, the issue has probably been how to treat (if at all) to ensure competition. The legal teams on both sides would have had their requirements. I've no doubt at all that the IAAF would have been pushing for surgical removal of testes, where Semenya's camp would probably have resisted this. The IAAF will probably have pushed for surgery as a key requirement for Semenya to continue her career in athletics - I'm not sure of the legal issues around this, but that is likely to have been their desire. Semenya's team may have argued against this as an infringement on her right to decide on her medical treatment, and also to compete without that surgery.
The eventual compromise may have been medical/hormonal treatment, and the process of the treatment and monitoring the response to that treatment would take time to track. Hence the delay.
Will the details of the process be announced? Or does speculation continue?
Of course, this is all speculation, and hopefully, further announcements will clear it up. Here again, we have another fierce debate - should more detail be disclosed, or does "medical confidentiality" dictate that no announcement is made? I've felt since the beginning that once the first leak happened, it would be in Semenya's best interests announce as much detail as she could without compromising herself too much. In fact, if I think about it, the more she discloses the better, even at the risk of giving away too much information. Better to control the facts than allow them to be made up or to sow mistrust and suspicion that it was a 'technicality' that got her cleared. Simply returning to competition with no announcement will create mistrust and another round of speculation as the rumour mill begins to spin. On the other hand, one can appreciate Semenya's desire for privacy, but this will be interesting to follow.
The impact of reduced testosterone on performance?
The other very interesting thing to observe is whether Semenya's performance levels will remain where they were. This is what most athletics followers will now be looking at. If it is true that her testosterone levels have been reduced, even chemically, then it will certainly have an impact on performance, mostly because of the effect it will have on her training adaptation.
Athletes use testosterone as a drug primarily because it enables a higher level of training performance and more rapid recovery post-training. The combination of the two equals improved performance. A removal of testosterone would impair both direct responses and recovery capacity, and I feel that the recovery is the more crucial of the two in the larger scheme of things. The immediate effect of 'testosterone withdrawal', in an athletic sense, is to reduce the level of training the athlete can manage without either running into injury or overtraining.
Therefore, if Semenya is to return, what is more telling will be how she adjusts her training, and not necessarily her race performances, because these are the result of her training performances, and whether her coach is able to manage an athlete who may very well be going through substantial physiological changes. That will be the first big hurdle to overcome.
The East Germans had previously calculated that a doping programme (primarily with anabolic hormones, of which testosterone is one) could improve performance in shot put by 17% in one season! That is not an acute effect, mind you. Rather, it is the cumulative effect of the training that is done while doping and benefiting from higher testosterone levels. The east Germans also worked out that doping was worth between 5 and 10 seconds in an 800m event for women. In fact, for those who are interested in this research, you can read that post, based on the secret documents uncovered by Werner Franke, here.
Is the "loss of performance" when reducing anabolic hormone levels the same as the gain from increasing them? Honestly, I don't know. I don't think anyone does, and this case has no precedent. So there are no answers. Some of the physiological and anatomical changes induced by testosterone during puberty will never be reversed, others will. How performance, the sum of all these factors, is affected, remains to be seen.
Of course, all of this is speculation, because we still don't know the details. And so we're back again to the issue of whether anything will be said, other than that "she is clear to compete".
The next steps will be interesting.
（TUESDAY, JULY 06, 2010　extract passages from the article「Sports news and sports science in the news」）

Tucker博士は、復帰までに長期間を要したことについて、IAAFとセメンヤ側との間で行われたであろう「処置の方法」に関する綱引きが最終的に「medical/hormonal treatment」に落ち着き、その推移（変化）を見極めるために必要な時間であったと推察している。
その上で、セメンヤ選手がパフォーマンスレベルを維持できるのかが今後の大いなる関心事であり、もし彼女のテストステロンレベルが低下したとすれば、トレーニング効果に及ぼす影響が大きいという意味で、確実にパフォーマンスに影響するであろうと指摘する。
そこには、もちろん旧東独が試算したアナボリックホルモンによるパフォーマンス改善効果（女子800mでの5〜10秒の短縮効果が期待できる）の妥当性云々の問題も表出するが、一方でテストステロンによって引き起こされたであろう思春期中の生理的、解剖学的な変化のいくつかは事後的に取り除くことができないという問題もあるとしている。
もちろんこの問題には先例がなく、ここに至るまでのプロセスも詳らかにされていないので「すべては仮説である」としているが、先のエントリーでも触れた「性的変異を性そのものに直接的に結びつける主張に与することはできないし、誰にでも競技する権利がある」という主張に変わりはないようである。
何はともあれ、復帰が認められたことをまずは言祝ぎたい。
世界記録更新に向けてレッツゴー！セメンヤ！