Gazeta Lodz - Coe hails 'overwhelming support' for gene testing ahead of Tokyo worlds

Track and field's governing body's is testing for the SRY gene, which is part of the Y chromosome and causes male characteristics to develop.

Athletes who test negative for the Y chromosome are eligible to compete in the female category in world ranking competitions.

If the test is positive, athletes can only compete in the female category in non-world ranking competitions or in a category other than female.

"I'm always accommodating of different views," Coe told media Thursday as the Diamond League finals played out in Zurich, just days ahead of the September 13-21 world championships in Tokyo.

"But we've been overwhelmingly supported by the athletes. They've been particularly helpful. Many of the female athletes have been in contact personally and thanked us for this approach.

"I'd just like to thank the many member federations who have come to the table to help us. It's been a really good example of collaboration."

Athletics has long wrestled with eligibility criteria for women's events, amid questions over biological advantages for transgender athletes and those with differences of sex development (DSD).

Transgender women who have gone through male puberty are banned by World Athletics from women's events. The federation requires female DSD athletes, whose bodies produce high testosterone levels, to take medication to lower them in order to be eligible.

World Athletics has said its gene test -- carried out using a cheek swab or blood test -- is "extremely accurate," which means false positives or false negatives are "extremely unlikely".

- 'Information destroyed' -

Coe said the test was non-invasive.

"We're not gender testing. We're verifying female biology. It's not holding any other data. It's not testing for anything else. It's not DNA or genetic or DNA information.

"Once it's had its use, it's a one-off test, and the information is destroyed. So I think this is the right place for our sport to be, and I think we've had overwhelming support for that position."

Coe said that World Athletics was nearing the end of the SRY gene testing. He said 85 per cent of female athletes competing in Tokyo were tested in two national championships windows.

"That number has now risen to over 90 per cent and we will pretty much have met our mission by the time we get to Tokyo."

Testing, according to the British two-time Olympic 1,500m gold medallist, had not been "without its challenges" after first being given the nod at a council meeting in March this year.

"If there are outstanding athletes that still haven't been tested, we have the ability to do that in Tokyo, but that is by no means an invitation for member federations to wait until they get to Tokyo," he said.

Turning to France, where the test is illegal, Coe said that many French athletes had been tested outside of the country.

"If they haven't been able to be tested overseas and outside of the French jurisdiction, they will be tested at the holding camp that the French team are currently in."

Speaking on possibility of other federations within the International Olympic Committee umbrella taking up the gene testing, Coe said: "Those have to be the autonomous judgements of individual federations.

"I've never benchmarked what we've done and then proselytised amongst other federations.

"That has to be a judgement that they make in the best interest of their sport."

"I don't think this is alien territory," Coe added. "Given everything that we have done in the past to do what we can to preserve, to protect, to promote the female category, which is absolutely sacrosanct for me.

"For the same reasons I talked about our sport being 50/50, it's what we do. It's our DNA."

R.Zakrzewski--GL