"Competing with a person who is maybe legal, maybe not legal" - Indian athlete expresses concern over Dutee Chand competing despite hyperandrogenism

Indian sprinter Dutee Chand’s career has been surrounded by many controversies ever since she entered the track in 2013 at the international stage.

Just a year into the scene, the Gopalpur-born athlete’s career was in jeopardy after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, also now called as World Athletics) banned her from competing in the women’s competition because of her condition of hyperandrogenism (an excess production of “male” hormones in female body).

The only option left for Dutee was to reduce the testosterone level lower than the male range either through consuming hormone-suppressing drugs or undergoing a surgery that would limit the level of testosterone her body can produce. Dutee rejected both methods and instead opted to knock on the doors of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, to challenge the decision.

She fought valiantly for four years, perhaps her biggest race off the court, until the CAS suspended the IAAF’s hyperandrogenism regulations in 2018, and, thus, reinstated her rights to compete in women’s category.

When the ban was imposed on Dutee Chand, many athletes in the domestic circuit were left befuddled in their competition with the Odisha sprinter.

Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, one of those athletes, on the condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism over the matter.

“She (Dutee Chand) is a very good athlete. She has pushed all our Indian athletes to a certain level. It always help on the track when you have a good competitor. But when I got to know about her hyperandrogenism and her unknown part which was very new to me. When it came to light, we felt like ‘Are we competing illegally or are we competing against somebody who is not right,” the athlete told Sportskeeda.

The athlete raised questions over Dutee Chand's legality to participate in the races and alleged that they were losing out on their medals to her.

“It was confusing and challenging to compete. Every time you train hard and you are competing with a person who is maybe legal, maybe not legal," she added. "We are losing all our medals. You are losing because somebody else is already there, so you are not getting a chance to perform yourself."

The athlete alleged that sprinters are suffering due to Dutee competiting in the race, who is maybe not legal, which brings about doubt in the players' minds about their own skills.

“It is not that I have anything to do with her. It is her life and completely a different individual but when it comes to performance level, it always comes to whether we are doing legally or illegally. We are suffering because somebody is not right or right. So it is always a confusion,” the athlete added.

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Dutee Chand serves doping ban

In August this year, Dutee Chand was banned by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) after failing two out-of-competition dope tests against a banned substance in December last year. She was provisionally suspended in January after the national agency detected anabolic agents/SARMS from her urine samples taken on December 5 and 26.

The ban remains effective from January 3, 2023 and all results, competitions of Dutee from December 5, 2022, onwards are nullified. Although she appealed to top authorities in the country, including central and state governments, to intervene in the matter, Dutee missed major competitions such as Asian Athletics Championship, World Athletics Championship and the Asian Games.

Only time will tell whether her ban will be lifted or not, but at the moment it looks like she will miss the Olympics Games in Paris next year.

This exclusive was written with inputs from Featured Writer Viransh Shah.