Quite an interesting one in the news at the moment regarding Caster Semenya (the new 800m champion) who apparently has 3x or 4x the "normal" testosterone level for a women. The IAAF have asked her to take a gender test.

 

Semeya has recently improved by almost 8 seconds recently in her 800m times. So the IAAF are making sure that this isn't due to any doping, or even a gender issue. The gender testing is s'posed to be quite discrete, but obviously it's now all in the press. You have to admit that an improvement of this amount and at that level is pretty extraordinary in that timescale and does raise the question of testosterone usage.

 

 

 

I guess the principle with athletics is that you use your natural abilities. Although even this doesn't produce a level playing field as it were, due to variations in peoples natural testosterone levels (such as Semenya's), the legal supplements they can take, and genetics amongst many other factors. I've heard it argued that it would be more fair if athletes were allowed to take a certain amount of testosterone in order that they can all have the same level - although getting this level and regulating this would probably be even more tricky than it currently is. The other argument is to let athletes take whatever supplements they choose - but I think we're a long way of this - not to mention the potential health issues of allowing this.