Two 18-year-old Namibian runners threw track and field’s contentious testosterone issue back into the Olympic spotlight when they blazed into the women’s 200-metre final in Tokyo just weeks after being barred from the 400-metre race.
One of them, Christine Mboma, broke the world under-20 record twice in the span of about eight hours at the Olympic Stadium on the way to the 200 final.
She also charged past American Gabby Thomas, who earlier this year became the second-fastest woman ever in the 200, down the home stretch of their semifinal. Mboma finished second behind Elaine Thompson-Herah, the defending Olympic champion.
Mboma and teammate Beatrice Masilingi aren’t allowed to run in the 400 — their favored event — after tests ordered by track governing body World Athletics found they had high natural testosterone. That meant they fell under the same regulations that have sidelined double Olympic champion Caster Semenya of South Africa in the 800 metres.
“It was good, it was good. I’m happy. I’m through,” Masilingi said. “I felt that for me making it to the semifinals was the goal that I set. I crossed it and really happy with myself.”
The two Namibians announced themselves this season with some blistering fast times in the 400 metres, but those performances prompted World Athletics to order testosterone tests at their training base in Italy, the Namibian Olympic committee said. The tests revealed their natural testosterone levels were higher than a limit set by the governing body, prompting their ban. The Namibian Olympic committee said the two runners were not aware they had high natural testosterone before the tests.
Athletes affected by the rules can compete in restricted races if they lower their testosterone levels for at least six months before a competition. They have three options to do that: Taking a daily birth control pill, having hormone-blocking injections or having surgery.
The testosterone rules, which were introduced in 2018, affect female athletes with conditions referred to as differences of sex development, or DSDs. Those athletes have testosterone levels that are higher than the typical range for females, World Athletics said, and are deemed to give them an unfair advantage over other female athletes.
One of the many criticisms of the rules is that they’re inconsistent because they only apply to certain race distances. World Athletics scientists have not been able to determine whether increased testosterone has a meaningful impact in distances outside the 400-metre to 1-mile range.
The issue was a major controversy at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, when all three medalists in the women’s 800 metres — Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui — were later barred from that event because of high natural testosterone levels.
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