Towards responsible policy-making in international sport: reforming the medical-scientific commissions

Abstract

On 24 July 2015, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld an appeal by Indian sprinter Dutee Chand against the Hyperandrogenism Regulations of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), finding that the IAAF could not provide sufficient scientific evidence to justify the Regulations. It was the first time that CAS had overturned both an athlete’s suspension and the relevant policy. The decision should have prompted the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee, which had similar regulations, to re-examine the processes by which they have imposed their rules upon the female athletes of the world, but both bodies hunkered down and defended the suspended policies. This paper argues that the IAAF and the IOC established the hyperandrogenism regulations in a conspiratorial, unsubstantiated and harmful manner that flies in the face of the ‘best practice’ established by other bodies that create science-based policies affecting large numbers of people and tarnishes the Olympic Movement. I call upon the IAAF and IOC to reform the medical commissions by requiring future policy-making along the lines of the guidelines established by international organizations such as the World Health Organization.