Tag Archives: Caster Semenya

Athletics

Transgender athletes banned from World Athletics events

Transgender women will no longer be allowed to compete in female track and field events regardless of their levels of testosterone, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said Thursday, citing fairness over inclusion.

Coe said no transgender athlete who had gone through male puberty would be permitted to compete in female world ranking competitions from March 31.

Speaking after a meeting of the global track and field federation’s decision-making body, Coe said World Athletics had consulted with stakeholders including 40 national federations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and trans groups about the issue of transgender athletes.

“The majority of those consulted stated that transgender athletes should not be competing in the female category,” he said.

“Many believe there is insufficient evidence that trans women do not retain advantage over biological women and want more evidence that any physical advantages have been ameliorated before they are willing to consider an option for inclusion into the female category.”

He added: “The judgment we took … was, I believe, in the best interests of our sport.”

Not saying ‘no’ forever

Coe said a working group headed by a transgender person would be created to further monitor scientific developments.

“We’re not saying ‘no’ forever,” Coe said.

“Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations.

“We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.”

In a statement, World Athletics said it became apparent that there was “little support within the sport” for an option that was presented to stakeholders which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5 nanomoles per liter of blood for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.

“There are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics and consequently no athletics-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of female competition in athletics.

“In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritize fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.”

The World Athletics’ ruling follows that of FINA, swimming’s world governing body, which has stopped transgender swimmers who had gone through male puberty from competing in women’s elite races.

World Rugby, in 2020, was the first international sports federation to rule that transgender male-to-females could not compete at the elite and international level of the women’s game.

DSD rules tightened

World Athletics also amended regulations covering athletes classified as DSD, or having “differences of sexual development.”

The most high-profile DSD athlete is double Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya of South Africa.

Under the new regulations, in order to compete in the female category, DSD athletes will have to reduce their amount of blood testosterone to below 2.5 nanomoles per liter, down from the current level of five, and remain below this threshold for two years, rather than just one, as is the case now.

The average level of testosterone in women is between 0.5 and 2.4 nmol/l.

World Athletics also removed the principle of restricted events for DSD athletes, meaning regulations now cover all events rather than the previously monitored ones, which were from 400m to one mile.

‘Disheartening and disappointing’

Cyclist Kristen Worley, the first transitioned athlete to successfully legally challenge the gender policies of the IOC, called the ban by World Athletics “disheartening and disappointing.”

Worley sought to compete for Canada at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but because of health issues related to the IOC’s gender verification process, she was physically unable to perform.

She has since become an educator on the topic of transgender athletes and safeguarding women in sports.

“What’s happening is the most vulnerable are being excluded from sport more for political reasons and not based on science and research,” Worley said.

“This has effects not just at the international levels but consequently over communities across the globe including communities in the United States.”

But Worley said the notion that transgender women athletes are dominating women’s sports was nonsense.

“I’m watching all the news groups put out images on Twitter with no images of transitioned athletes at the elite levels of the World Athletics because there aren’t any,” she said.

“So this is purely a political move by Seb Coe and World Athletics to deal with the right wing issues, political relationships and obviously potential sponsors that are funding World Athletics today.”

 

Source:japantimes.co.jp

Athletics

Pamela Jelimo receives her Olympic medal after waiting for 10 years

The first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the 800m women race, Pamela Jelimo, yesterday received her bronze medal that was presented to her at the historic pillars of the Kenyan heritage building.

The 2008 Africa 800m and 2012 World Indoor 800m champion, who finished fourth in 1:57.59 was emotional as she received her award,

The ceremony which was graced by Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Sports and Arts Ababu Namwamba, NOC_K president, Dr. Paul Tergat and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Kipchoge Keino, IOC Olympic Solidarity Pamela Vipond and Gonzalo Barrio who are currently in the country to hold consultative meetings with NOC-K.

Three athletes so far have received an upgrade of their performance in the 2012 London Games, a result of winner Mariya Savinova from Russia, who was stripped of the gold medal for doping.

“My children can now watch me receive the bronze medal, 10 years later. This is like a dream; I initially didn’t believe it when I heard the good news. It’s truly a dream of every athlete to win a medal in the Olympics and I’m honored to have my parents accompany me and share this joy.” She said.

Following this, South Africa’s Caster Semenya and another Russian Ekaterina Poistogova, who had settled for silver and bronze moved to Gold and silver respectively.

This resulted in “Eldoret express”, World Champion in the race, Janeth Jepkosgei moving into 8th position and receiving an IOC Diploma certificate.

The third athlete to receive a certificate is 5,000 Olympic Silver medalist Hellen Obiri who scooped 8th position in the London Olympics.

“I remember 2012, since it was my first Olympics, my expectations were high honestly, however I didn’t sniff the medal bracket. So humbled to receive the upgrade and this is a motivation to fellow athletes to run clean.” She said.

On receiving this, the New York Marathon debutant told the NOC-K she’s liking her new career in Marathon and exclusively reported she will indeed be going for the Paris 2024 Marathon to ensure an Olympic Gold medal (the only medal she’s missing) is in her cabinet.

“Inspire a Generation.’’ Was the motto for the 2012 London Olympic Games, and indeed the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the 800m women race, Pamela Jelimo, has proven the theme as she received her bronze medal in her home country surrounded by the Olympic family under the historic pillars of the Kenyan heritage building.

 

Athletics

Caster Semenya on world track and field championships entry list

Caster Semenya, the two-time Olympic 800m champion who now races longer distances due to a rule capping testosterone levels in middle-distance events, is on the 5000m entry list for the world championships that start next week in Eugene, Oregon.

Neither Semenya’s team nor South Africa’s track and field federation has responded to a request for confirmation that she will race at worlds. The federation announced a roster last week that did not include Semenya.

Semenya’s last global meet was the 2017 World Championships, where she won a third world title in the 800m and took bronze in the 1500m.

In 2019, a World Athletics rule went into effect that capped athlete testosterone levels in women’s events from the 400m through the mile for athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD). World Athletics said that no female athletes would have a level above the cap — five nanomoles per liter — unless they had a DSD or a tumor.

Semenya made multiple unsuccessful appeals. Her latest, and perhaps last, to the European Court of Human Rights last year, has not been adjudicated.

Over the last three years, Semenya joined a soccer club, then returned to the track and moved down to the 200m and finally up to the 5000m.

She did not qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Nor did she qualify outright for these world championships based on her best time this season and world ranking, missing the initial 42-runner cutoff by two spots in the world rankings (and by three ranking points out of more than 1,100).

Semenya moved up the qualifiers list when other higher-ranked runners did not enter worlds. That list included reigning world champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya, who is entered solely in the 10,000m.

Elsewhere, Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan entered the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m but is expected to drop at least one of the events. Hassan won gold in the 5000m and 10,000m and bronze in the 1500m in Tokyo.

Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo, the two-time Olympic 400m champion, is entered in both the 200m and 400m, which overlap. Her agency said Friday that she plans to contest solely the 400m.

Many top Cuban athletes are not entered at worlds after reports of athletes leaving the national team.

Cubans not on the entry list include Juan Miguel Echevarria, the Olympic long jump silver medalist, the world’s top two men’s triple jumpers this year in Jordan Diaz Fortun and Andy Diaz and Reynier Mena, who on Sunday ran the world’s third-fastest 200m this year, bringing his personal best down from to 20.04 to 19.63.

Source: olympics.nbcsports.com

Athletics, Features

Caster Semenya: ‘I am the greatest that has ever done it’

Let’s start at the finish, with the last question I put to Caster Semenya: When the time comes for the two-time Olympic 800m champion to hang up her spikes, how does she think the world will remember her career?

“I am the greatest that has ever done it,” she says. “That’s what I’ll be remembered for: being great, my talents. I feel unapologetic (about them) and I want people to remember the greatness.”

The 31-year-old South African is the headline star at Tuesday’s BAM Cork City Sports, where she will race over 3000m. It’s Semenya’s first visit to Ireland, and after she laughs about the “European weather” she admits “everything is good” since her arrival last Friday.

Her goal on Tuesday is simple, and relatively modest: to run under 8:50, a time that would rank her outside the top 50 on the women’s top lists for 2022 – strange territory for an athlete who was for so long indomitable.

But these days things are different. Semenya has been unable to compete at distances between 400m and the mile since 2019, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in favour of her sport’s governing body, the IAAF (now World Athletics), that athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) had to reduce their testosterone below five nmol/L to compete in the women’s category.

In 2020 Semenya appealed the decision to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling, saying the regulations were “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to ensure fair competition in women’s sport.

Individuals with 46 XY DSD are usually born with internal testes that cause their natural testosterone to sit in the male range of 7.7-29.4nmol/L, well above the typical female range of 0.12-1.79nmol/L. Semenya has since opted not to lower her testosterone by taking medication, which she said caused her to feel sick, gain weight and suffer panic attacks following a similar ruling on athletes with hyperandrogenism back in 2011.

While the regulations could eventually extend to other events, right now they apply only to track events where the link between testosterone and performance is most pronounced, leaving athletes with DSDs free to compete below 400m or above the mile.

Semenya switched to 200m in 2020 in a bid to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics but after clocking a best of 23.49, well outside the qualifying standard, she moved up to 5000m. She ran a personal best of 15:31.50 at the South African Championships in April, shy of what was needed to make this month’s World Championships, but missing that is “not really a problem” – her chief goal remains the Paris Olympics in 2024.

“The transition has not been easy, I’m a power athlete,” she says. “I’m a tall figure, I’m more muscular so I have to work on being very lean. Now it’s a matter of mastering how to run distance, and it’s coming. Rome was not built in a day.”

These days, Semenya covers 130km a week in training with a long run of 30km. “It was not easy the first year but now I’m getting used to it and I started enjoying distance more than speed.”

She’s coached by her wife, Violet, and they have two daughters, with their youngest celebrating her first birthday on Tuesday.

“This race is dedicated to her,” she says. Her eldest daughter, Oratile, will turn three in a few days. How has life changed for Semenya since she became a mother?

“It makes you a better person, you see life in a different way. Before it was all about myself but now I live for my family. There’s no difference on the track but when I walk off it, I’m a parent and I have to live based on my kids.”

Will her experience in recent years inform her approach as a parent?

“Yeah,” she says. “The main goal for me is to teach them to understand their rights – how to fight for themselves, how to live for themselves, not for any other people.”

Semenya continues to fight her cause. Early last year, following the federal court ruling, she took a case against Switzerland at the European Court of Human Rights, which has yet to be heard.

“It’s not about winning, I don’t really care about the outcome,” she says. “It’s about raising awareness about what’s happening with the authorities, how selfish they are, their motives. My optimal goal is just to expose those errors and then fight for justice – always.

“People need to realise that when you’re here for athletes, you better mean it. If you’re a leader and you say sport is for all, you should act like that.”

In recent weeks, swimming’s world governing body barred transgender women from elite female competitions if they had experienced any part of male puberty, and several other sports are likely to follow suit. While it’s obviously a very different issue to DSD athletes, there are some similarities, which triggers the question: what did Semenya make of that ruling?

“I really don’t have an answer because I don’t know,” she says. “As I’m not transgender, I don’t know how they’re feeling. It’s very complex and a complicated question so, for me, I wouldn’t answer for something I have no experience about.”

An athlete Semenya does feel a strong kinship with is her old rival Francine Niyonsaba, the Burundian who won silver behind her at the Rio Olympics and who moved up in distance following introduction of the DSD regulations. Niyonsaba is currently the quickest woman in the world over 3000m this year.

“We’re very good friends and, yeah, it’d be great if we could have that rivalry again at 5K,” says Semenya. “She always wants what’s best for me, I always want what’s best for her. We encourage each other.”

I ask Semenya about her daughters, and whether they might grow up to be runners. “I hope they do tennis, not running,” she says. “Running can be hard. You don’t want your kids to go through what you went through.”

Despite all she’s dealt with, Semenya remains a fan of the sport. She and her wife coach a running group in South Africa and despite not competing at the Tokyo Olympics last year, she followed the action from afar, saying it was “exceptionally good.”

Semenya still wants to be at the Paris Games in 2024, even if it’s not at her favoured distance.

“The goal was to run the 800 until I’m 35, but unfortunately I had to stop before time,” she says. “But the dreams never change. As an Olympian, you always want to be the greatest. At the moment it’s all about enjoying what I do. Being able to run, it’s a blessing.”

Source: irishexaminer.com

Athletics

Caster Semenya slams African athletics leaders

Two-time Olympic and three-time world champion Caster Semenya has branded leaders in African athletics “cowards” for failing to stand up and fight for female athletes who are facing eligibility issues.

The 31-year-old is barred from competing in her preferred 800m race by World Athletics’ differences of sexual development (DSD) rules introduced in 2019.

Athletes with high testosterone are required to medically lower their levels in order to compete in events between 400m and 1500m.

“I think that, in this day, we have coward leaders,” Semenya said.

“In this continent, people are quiet. I don’t know why they’re quiet. They’re not fighting for their own athletes.

“You have got to show up and work, fight for your athletes, and then African athletics will be great. At this moment it’s disappointing.”

When asked by BBC Sport Africa about Semenya’s comments and whether African athletics leadership has done enough for its athletes, Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) president Malboum Kalkaba said: “Sorry, I do not have an answer”.

Similar cases across continent

Several other African athletes have been affected by the DSD rules, including Burundi’s Olympic silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and her fellow 800m runner Margaret Wambui of Kenya.

Last year, two Namibian teenagers, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, were forced to step down from the 400m weeks before the Tokyo Olympics after they were informed of their elevated testosterone levels.

Both Mboma and Masilingi ended up competing in the 200m in Japan, with Mboma winning historic Olympic silver for her country.

However, Semenya, who now competes over 5000m, has questioned African leadership’s handling of the teenagers’ situation as well as its relative “silence” on the DSD matter in general.

“When I was 18, I couldn’t speak up,” the South African said. “Now I’m mature enough, I can speak.

“Imagine what was going on through those kids’ minds. They can’t do anything, but the leaders are just sitting out there enjoying the privileges, being in the boardrooms.”

CAA director general Lamine Faty said Semenya “has the right to express her sentiments” and that concerns over DSD rules were raised by the organisation a “long time ago” and were discussed again recently at a CAA council meeting in Mauritius.

A debate about eligibility in women’s sports has been heating up, with the recent focus being on the status of transgender athletes.

Last week, World Athletics president Seb Coe hinted his organisation could follow swimming in banning transgender women from elite female competitions, insisting “fairness is non-negotiable”.

“We continue to study, research and contribute to the growing body of evidence that testosterone is a key determinant in performance, and have scheduled a discussion on our regulations with our council at the end of the year,” he told BBC Sport.

‘We are never going to stop fighting’

Champion over 800m at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, Semenya has previously challenged World Athletics’ rules but lost her case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2019.

She then lost an appeal and was defeated at Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court a year later, before going to the European Court of Human Rights where her case has yet to be heard.

“We are never going to stop fighting,” she said.

“At the moment it is not about me, it’s about the young kids that are coming up now that are going to face the same problem.

“There are a lot of kids that want to compete in 400m, in 800m and in 1500m, but they cannot be included.

“They say sport is for all, but at the moment it’s not for all.”

Athletics

World Athletics may bar transgender women from female competition

The World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, has hailed swimming’s decision to ban transgender women from elite female competition as in “the best interests of its sport” – and hinted that track and field could soon follow suit.

Lord Coe was in Budapest on Sunday as swimming’s governing body, Fina, voted to bar from women’s events trans athletes who have experienced any part of male puberty. Within 24 hours he announced that the World Athletics council would also be reviewing its transgender and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes policies at the end of the year.

“My responsibility is to protect the integrity of women’s sport. We take that very seriously and, if it means that we have to make adjustments to protocols going forward, we will,” Coe said. “And I’ve always made it clear: if we ever get pushed into a corner to that point where we’re making a judgment about fairness or inclusion, I will always fall down on the side of fairness.”

Under World Athletics rules transgender women can compete in the female category provided they suppress their testosterone to below 5nmol/L for 12 months. That rule was also followed by Fina until Sunday, when it changed its regulations after scientific evidence showed trans women retain an advantage even after reducing testosterone.

When asked what he made of Fina’s new policy, Coe was clear. “We see an international federation asserting its primacy in setting rules, regulations and policies that are in the best interest of its sport,” he said. “This is as it should be. We have always believed, and repeated constantly, that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this.”

As things stand there are no elite‑level trans track and field athletes, although CeCé Telfer became the first openly transgender person to win an NCAA title in 2019 in the women’s 400m hurdles.

Any toughening of the rules will also affect DSD athletes such as the double Olympic and three-times world championship 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya, the 200m silver medallist from Tokyo 2020 Christine Mboma and Francine Niyonsaba, who won the women’s 5,000m Diamond League final last year.

DSD athletes – who have male testes but do not produce enough of the hormone Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), critical for the formation of male external genitalia – have proved a hugely controversial area for athletics.

In 2019 World Athletics went to the court of arbitration for sport to stop DSD athletes running internationally at events between 400m and a mile, unless they take medication to reduce their testosterone levels. They can, however, run in other events. Cas ruled that 46 XY DSD athletes “enjoy a significant sporting advantage … over 46 XX athletes without such DSD” due to biology.

There has been a great deal of sympathy for athletes such as Semenya, who have been raised as women from a young age and want to compete as one, and any changes to World Athletics’ DSD policy would reignite the controversy.

When asked whether the governing body would consider adopting a similar policy to Fina, Coe said: “We have always said our regulations in this area are a living document, specific to our sport and we will follow the science.

“We continue to study, research and contribute to the growing body of evidence that testosterone is a key determinator in performance and have scheduled a discussion on our DSD and transgender regulations with our council at the end of the year.”

Athletics

Beatrice Chebet gifts Kenya the third gold in Mauritius

World U20 5000m champion, Beatrice Chebet gave Kenya her third gold medal at the ongoing Africa Senior Athletics championships in Reduit, Mauritius.

Chebet who is also the 2019 World U20 Cross Country champion battled for honors with the Ethiopian 10km National Record holder, Fentaye Azale who came to this race with the second fastest time of 14:44.51.

The 22 year-old Kenyan held off her Ethiopian counter to cross the finish line in a time of 15:00.82 with the latter crossing the line in second place in 15:01.89.

Caroline from Kenya closed the podium three finishes in a time of 15:05.34.

Ethiopia’s Melknat Sharew and Sarah Chelangat from Uganda who has a bad season with injuries that has kept her out of action came home in fourth and fifth in 15:08.65 and 15:37.68 respectively.

Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya finished a distant sixth in 16:03.24.

LEADING RESULTS

5000M WOMEN

  1. Beatrice Chebet   (KEN) 15:00.82
  2. Fentaye Azale       (ETH) 15:01.89
  3. Caroline Nyaga     (KEN) 15:05.34
  4. Melknat Sharew    (ETH) 15:08.65
  5. Sarah Chelangat   (UGA) 15:37.68
  6. Caster Semenya    (RSA) 16:03.24
Athletics

I was told to show my vagina to track officials- Caster Semenya (VIDEO)

Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya, burst on to the scene in 2009 when she won the women’s 800m world title by a stunning margin, shortly after the track officials from world governing body said she would undergo gender verification tests.

The 31 year-old offered to show her vagina to track officials when she was just 18 years old to prove she was a female.

Athletics

Caster Semenya offered to show track officials her body

Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya said she offered to show her vagina to track officials when she was just 18 years old to prove she was a female.

She also accused the world athletics body of making her take medication that “tortured” her and made her fear that she was going to have a heart attack, according to a report on Monday in British newspaper The Telegraph.

The Telegraph published what it said were parts of an interview the South African runner did with HBO Real Sports. The full HBO interview is due to air in the United States on Tuesday.

In the interview, the Telegraph said Semenya reflected on the 2009 world championships in Berlin, where she won the 800-meter world title in dominant fashion as an 18-year-old newcomer at her first major athletics meet.

But her performance and muscular physique led the world track body to order the teenager to undergo sex tests, causing a firestorm of controversy. According to the Telegraph, Semenya said track officials from the governing body “probably” thought she had a penis. “I told them, ‘It’s fine. I’m a female, I don’t care. If you want to see I’m a woman, I will show you my vagina. Alright?’” Semenya said in the interview with HBO Real Sports, according to the Telegraph.

Following her world title win, Semenya was forced by the world track body to take medication that artificially lowered her naturally high testosterone if she wanted to compete against other female runners. Although the world track body has never released details of Semenya’s specific medication, it’s believed she took birth control pills or something with similar properties to lower her testosterone.

“It made me sick, made me gain weight, panic attacks, I don’t know if I was ever going to have a heart attack,” Semenya said of the medication. “It’s like stabbing yourself with a knife every day. But I had no choice. “I’m 18, I want to run, I want to make it to (the) Olympics, that’s the only option for me. But I had to make it work.”

Forcing athletes to take medication to alter natural hormone levels in order to compete in sports has been criticized by medical experts as being clearly unethical. It’s also never been revealed what dosage of medication Semenya had to take to lower her testosterone to a level set as acceptable by track chiefs to allow her to run.

The Telegraph reported that World Athletics lawyer Jonathan Taylor also spoke to HBO Real Sports and defended the medication, which wasn’t named, by saying leading experts said they would prescribe it for female athletes with high testosterone. Semenya also responded to that. “Jonathan must cut his tongue and throw it away,” the Telegraph quoted Semenya as saying.

“If he wants to understand how that thing has tortured me, he must go and take those medications. He will understand.” The 2009 world championships was the start of Semenya’s 13-year battle against track authorities to be able to compete against female athletes.

Now 31, Semenya is banned from competing in distances from 400 to the mile at top-level track meets in updated testosterone regulations unless she agrees to again take medication to lower her testosterone. She has refused, and hasn’t run an 800-meter race at a major meet since 2019. The regulations prevented Semenya from defending her Olympic title last year in Tokyo.

Semenya has one of a number of conditions referred to as differences of sex development, or DSDs. It results in a testosterone level that is higher than the typical female range and which World Athletics says gives her an unfair advantage against other female athletes.

She has challenged the testosterone regulations twice in court, losing appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal. She has launched a third appeal against them and is waiting for a hearing date to be set at the European Court of Human Rights.

Semenya has rarely spoken in detail about her experiences with the world track body, which was previously known as the IAAF and rebranded to World Athletics. However, details of the sometimes bitter battle came to light in 2019 when court documents from Semenya’s first legal challenge revealed the track body categorized her as “biologically male.” Semenya said she was outraged at a sports body “telling me that I am not a woman.” Semenya was identified as female at birth and has identified as female her whole life.

Yet some experts say that her elevated natural testosterone gives her a clear advantage against other women. Before she was banned from running in the 800 in 2019, Semenya went more than 30 races unbeaten.

Athletics

Athing Mu eyes Caster Semenya World Record

Olympic 800m champion, Athing Mu will lead a deep filed of elite athletes at the Penn Relays that will be held on Saturday (30) at the historic Franklin Field in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

The star-studded rich field includes Ajee Wilson of the United States, who recently won the World Indoor 800m, and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule, who was a finalist at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 19-year-old last year set a personal best in 800m of 1:55.04 and she also carries the fourth fastest all-time in the 600m of 1:24.13 that she got early this year in Temple, Arizona. Mu also holds an incredible 400m lifetime best of 49.57 that she got last year in Hayward Field.

Mu holds the world U20 best in the Indoor 600m that she set in 2019 when she was 16 years of age. Her time of 1:23.57 is the second fastest ever run Indoors and the second fastest run by an American woman in any condition.

Mu would be a potential threat to the 600m World Record of 1:21.77 that was set in 2017 by Caster Semenya from South Africa.

The 2019 Pan American U20 Champion, will battle for honors with the 2017 World bronze medallist Ajee Wilson, who also took the World 800m Indoor tile early this year. The 27 year-old comes to this race with a lifetime best of 1:25.59 that she got in February. Wilson holds a personal best time in 600m of 1:22.39, which is the second-fastest time of all time.

The 2019 Pan American Games champion, Natoya Goule will also be in contention as she comes with a personal best of 51.52 in 400m and 1:56.15in 800m which is a Jamaican National Record.