Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya has vowed to challenge the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) newly introduced gender testing policy for the female category at the Olympics.

The South African athlete says that the regulation “undermines women’s rights” and has pledged a vocal fight against it.

The IOC unveiled the policy last week, which is anticipated to become a universal standard for female elite sports competitors, following years of inconsistent regulations that have often sparked controversy.

Semenya herself has been at the heart of such disputes, embroiled in a protracted legal battle with World Athletics over her eligibility to compete despite having a Difference of Sexual Development (DSD).

Speaking from Pretoria, the 35-year-old athlete said: “We’re going to be vocal about it, we’re going to make noise until we’re heard.”

She added: “Now it’s a matter of women standing for themselves to say, enough is enough. We are not going to be told how to do things.”

Semenya questioned the rationale behind the policy, saying: “If really we are accepted as women to take part, why does my appearance or my voice, why do my inner parts need to be a problem to take part in the sport?”

DSDs encompass a range of rare conditions affecting genes, hormones, and reproductive organs. Some individuals with DSDs are raised as female but possess XY sex chromosomes and testosterone levels typically found in males.

The IOC’s policy document says that including “androgen-sensitive XY-DSD athletes” in the female category for events requiring strength, power, or endurance “runs fundamentally counter to ensuring fairness, safety and integrity in elite competition”.

Semenya, who secured two Olympic and three world titles in the 800 metres before being restricted to shorter distances, disputes the scientific basis of the IOC’s stance.

She said that there is “no science” to suggest that XY-DSD provides an athlete with an advantage. “I’ve been there, I’ve done that. There’s no such thing as that,” she affirmed.

“There are people who are delusional. There are people who are convinced because a woman is masculine, a woman is born with intersex conditions, the DSD, they’ve mentioned all those things (that they have an advantage). But what I say is that if you’re going to be a great athlete, it’s through hard work.”

The new testing protocol for all female category athletes will involve a cheek swab or saliva analysis.

Further investigation will be conducted for any athletes testing positive for the SRY gene, which is located on the Y chromosome and triggers the development of male characteristics in mammals.

Semenya condemned the policy, arguing: “What this decision does, it undermines women. It undermines women’s dignity. It violates women’s rights because we know historically, these (tests) have failed before.”

She continued: “Women need to be celebrated. Women are not supposed to be questioned about their gender. Why that is their physique? Why it is how they look like? It doesn’t matter. Neither also the hormone level. Those are the things that are obviously genetics that cannot be controlled.”

She also criticised IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first woman and African to hold the office, for what she described as a lack of genuine consultation with her or other athletes living with DSDs.

“They sent us a letter the day they were going to publish whatever they’re going to publish,” Semenya revealed.

“If you’re going to consult, consult with a genuine heart because you’re consulting. Don’t consult because you’re ticking the box. Unfortunately, they have ticked a wrong box.”