World Athletics to require chromosome testing of women’s track and field athletes
NANJING, China — World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said Tuesday that the track and field’s governing body has approved the introduction of cheek swabs and dry blood-spot tests for female athletes in order to maintain “the integrity of competition.”
NANJING, China — World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said Tuesday that the track and field’s governing body has approved the introduction of cheek swabs and dry blood-spot tests for female athletes in order to maintain “the integrity of competition.”
The planned changes include reinstating a version of chromosome testing that was discontinued in the 1990s, requiring athletes who compete in the female category to submit to a cheek swab or dry blood-spot test for the presence of a gene that indicates whether the athlete has a “Y” chromosome present in males.
Coe told a news conference that athletes will have to take the test just once during their career.
Sebastian Coe with reporters in Costa Navarino, western Greece, on Thursday.Nikolas Kominis / AP“It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about, and particularly recently, about not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it,” Coe said after a two-day meeting of the World Athletics Council in Nanjing. “We feel this is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”
It’s unclear whether the tests will be in place before the world championships in September. Coe said that the new regulations will be drafted and that a testing provider will be confirmed over the next few weeks.
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