New gene tests system in disarray ahead of athletics’ world championships
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Gene test kits were not of the required standard, female Canadian athletes are told, while French athletes are told that the tests are illegal in their country.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Canadian athletes' initial gene tests were non-compliant with World Athletics' standards, requiring a re-test before the September 1st deadline.
- France prohibits the SRY gene tests, necessary for the World Athletics Championships, causing the French Athletics Federation to seek alternative testing locations.
- World Athletics aims to ensure fairness and attract women by confirming biological sex, stating it helps remove any perceived "biological glass ceiling."
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MANCHESTER – Female Canadian athletes have been told that the new gene tests they recently underwent do not comply with World Athletics’ requirements, leaving them scrambling to complete new tests before the Sept 1 deadline for the world championships.
French athletes are also seeking meets and camps outside their country to complete the one-off tests after the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Sports ruled them illegal in France.
Athletics Canada commissioned Dynacare to conduct SRY gene tests, which help to determine biological sex, at the recent national championships.
However, in an e-mail sent this week to athletes and seen by Reuters, it said Dynacare “has advised us that the test kits they provided were not of the required standard”.
Athletics Canada chief executive officer Mathieu Gentes told Reuters on Aug 15 that the federation is “doing everything within its power in the interest of athletes to ensure that we meet World Athletics’ Sept 1 deadline for completion of the test”.
Dynacare, which was not immediately available to comment, is sending new test kits to athletes based in Canada and the United States, along with testing locations, according to Athletics Canada.
The French Athletics Federation (FFA) said in a statement that it had planned to test athletes at the national championships but was told “such tests are prohibited under the French Bioethics Law enacted in 1994”.
World Athletics is working with the French federation to help athletes obtain tests at other meets or at their pre-worlds training camp outside France, said Jackie Brock-Doyle, director of special projects for the sport’s governing body.
She also said World Athletics is working with federations from Poland, Belgium and Switzerland to help facilitate testing for athletes competing at the four remaining Diamond League meets hosted by those countries.
World Athletics approved the introduction of a test to determine if an athlete is biologically female at its council meeting in March.
“(The federations) all knew in March that we were going to introduce the SRY test,” Brock-Doyle told Reuters.
“We were asked during the press conference, ‘Would we be bringing it in for the world championships?’ And we said at the time, ‘Yes, that is our intention.’”
When pressed for details about the test at the March press conference, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: “The process is very straightforward, frankly very clear and it’s an important one. And we will look for a testing provider, we will work on the timelines.”
World Athletics then announced details of the SRY test on July 31.
“It’s really important in a sport that’s permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling,” Coe said in a statement at the time. “The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case.”
Brock-Doyle said World Athletics was not worried that female athletes would miss the Sept 13-21 championships in Tokyo due to a failure to secure a test by the deadline.
Brock-Doyle, who estimated that 40 to 50 per cent of athletes have been tested, said those who have completed the test but are still awaiting the result past the deadline can compete in Japan.
“Not every single result may come through, because some countries it may take two, three weeks,” she added.
An adverse result – and potentially that athlete’s performance at the world championships – would be investigated afterwards.
Brock-Doyle also disagreed with criticism that the genetic testing regulations were pushed through too quickly.
“Would it have been better if we’d had a little bit more time? Maybe,” she said. “But the reason we’ve chosen the world championships is that it’s probably around 80-plus per cent of all our elite (female) athletes there.” REUTERS
