Two Namibian teen athletes were forced to withdraw from the 400m event for the Tokyo Olympics because their testosterone levels were too high. However, the president of Namibia’s National Olympic Committee, Abner Xoagub, said that information was supposed to remain confidential, All Africa reported.  

Xoagub said World Athletics made a deal to not release this sensitive information to the public, but the organization breached the agreement. The president says this is unacceptable and is an invasion of the teens’ rights. 

"Throughout our communication, we agreed that we will treat this with the respect and confidentiality it deserves because of its sensitivity, but World Athletics did not take that into consideration," Xoagub said.

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, both 18 years old, had been training for the 400m event at this summer’s Olympics when they were tested in Italy on June 30, 2021, during training camp. The test results which were shared with World Athletics showed both athletes had high levels of testosterone. 

Neither of the two teens was classified as being female because of their testosterone levels. As a result, the teens weren’t able to meet the World Athletics eligibility to run in any events from 400m to the mile race, Reuters reported. 

Xoagub said previous testing proves the teens are biologically female. He also said he was told World Athletics would perform its own testing and share its results with the Namibian committee. However, that did not happen.

“…we only learned on Thursday in the morning hours that World Athletics removed the names of these two athletes from the Tokyo Olympic Games' list as far as the 400m is concerned,” Xoagub said.

Xoagub and many other Namibian officials and athletes believe the teens were forced to withdraw from the 400m event because both performed well and set national and international records during the Olympic trials last week.

Mboma became the seventh-fastest woman in the world to ever run the 400-meter race. She ran the event in 48.54 seconds. 

Masilingi placed second in the 200m race and clocked in at 22.65 seconds. 

Namibia's government is disappointed and saddened that the two teens won’t be able to compete in the 400m event, which is their strongest race.

"The Ministry calls upon Athletics Namibia and the Namibia National Olympics committee to engage both the International Association of Athletics Federations (now known as World Athletics) and International Olympics Committee to seek ways that would not exclude any athlete because of natural conditions that are not of their own making,” Namibia’s government said in a statement.

Although the teens will miss the 400m event, they will be able to participate in the 100m and 200m races in Tokyo this summer.

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