On July 30, just over six weeks before the World Championship, the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics) announced that athletes who want to compete in the women's class in Tokyo in September must undergo a sex test in the form of a blood test or swab test.
The approximately 200 World Championship-participating countries and their national associations will conduct the tests where the athletes' sex chromosome set is analyzed. If there are traces of male sex hormones in the athletes, further investigation is made.
World Championship-relevant Swedish women will be tested on Saturday, in connection with the Finnkampen in Stockholm. A company that usually works with doping samples is doing the tests, which are then analyzed at a laboratory in Sweden.
David Fridell, secretary general of the association, says that the tests mean an extra administrative burden.
"Not been easy"
It's not entirely simple to perform this. At the core, it's about the test being taken rather than it necessarily having to be analyzed before the World Championship, he says.
No athlete has yet opposed the testing.
Of course, it's a voluntary test. But if you want to, if possible, be able to participate in the World Championship, you have to do it, says Fridell.
He understands that the test can be seen as an intrusion on the athletes' integrity.
I think you should have respect for the ethical issue in this. But so far, the athletes are going along with it. They know that, like doping tests, when it comes to being an elite athlete at the highest level, it requires some things that other people might not think feel entirely okay.
"There are two sides"
The sex issue has long been debated within athletics and is the basis for World Athletics' decision to reintroduce sex tests. In connection with the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, the female athletes' sex chromosome set was tested, and in recent years, women's testosterone levels have been tested.
Sweden's national team captain Kajsa Bergqvist is divided on the new tests.
At the core, it's to protect the women's competition class. I think there are two sides to it. If you look at it from the athletes' perspective, I haven't met anyone who thinks it's very bothersome, even if there may be questions about integrity and such, she says.
National team profile Tilde Johansson, sprinter and jumper, has previously spoken positively.
I personally don't think it feels strange, stressful, or uncomfortable, said the 24-year-old to TT in August.
