Dalilah wary of gender testing for women athletes

Bengaluru: Dalilah Muhammad may have acceded the throne to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone now but the 400m hurdler is no mood to rest on her past laurels. In fact, despite turning 35 this February, the two-time former world record holder is gearing up for one final swing, hoping to hit the same heights she did during the peak of her powers the previous decade.

Following long battles with injuries and missing out on the 2024 Paris Olympics after coming up short in the US trials, the 2016 Rio Games gold medallist and 2019 world champion (both individual) is slowly finding her rhythm. Named the event ambassador for the TCS World 10K run, Dalilah spoke to select media on Thursday about her plans this season, World Athletics intention to introduce gender testing and Americans reclaiming their track and field dominance at the Paris Games. Excerpts.   

You’re 35 years old but still going at it after pondering retirement at one stage. The World Championships are at Tokyo this September. Are you targeting that?

I've had a lot of setbacks in the past, just dealing with a lot of injuries, and I think in 2024, I really just had to kind of take the time to slow down, and finally now I'm in a position where I can just amp it up again. I'm running as well as I've run in the past. I've opened up my season with 54 (seconds), ran 53 this past meet in Botswana, and I've actually run my 52 too, which is actually only my second fastest time. So I'm happy right where I'm at. This year, just as luck would have it, the World Championships is the last competitive competition on our schedule, so hopefully I'll be in Tokyo, and that'll be my last. And hopefully more.

World Athletics is set to introduce gender testing for women in a bid to increase fairness in competition. You’ve always been a champion of women’s rights, so what do you think about it?

I think that's such a touchy subject, especially with the climate of what identifies as a woman, what are the parameters for each gender. I think it's a difficult subject to kind of even have truly have a comment on. I think, after reading a book about Caster Semenya, just how evasive some of these procedures can be and just how traumatising it can be when we talk about gender testing and what that even entails, I'm a little hesitant on it, to be quite honest. But I would definitely need more knowledge to really answer that question. I don't think whether the competition is fair is what determines whether or not women want to compete. I think women want to compete because we want to show what we are capable of as women. Who identifies as a woman is a topic completely else.

World Athletics has introduced prize money at the Olympics for medal winners which some of the federations are unhappy about. What are your thoughts?

Why should athletes not be able to make money from the Olympics? I think most athletes do this because we love it. We don't do it for the money. However, we need ways to support ourselves. And being at such a high level, such as something like the Olympics, I believe athletes should definitely be able to make a living from that. 

Talking about money, you competed in the opening leg of Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track series which offers big money. Opinions are divided about it considering WA has its own Diamond League. What’s your take on it?

I think athletes definitely should be compensated for what they do, we put so much into running and so much into this sport and we make a lot of sacrifices to compete at high levels and to have opportunities where we're able to support ourselves is just so beneficial across the board. There are very few athletes that are really truly making a living just from running alone and able to sustain themselves over time. Some athletes really are just able to make money from meets such as the Diamond Leagues and I think the men's, for example the men's 400 hurdles, I think at our championships there were three people in the men's 400m hurdle final that had contracts. The Grand Slam gives athletes those opportunities and of course we have the Diamond League schedule but there's not enough and we need more. 

Americans won 14 gold medals in track and field at the Paris Olympics last year. After conceding the spotlight to the Jamaicans, do we see Americans dominate athletics?

There's always going to be shifts. There's always going to be countries that dominate. And it goes back and forth. I look at the NCAA, which is the college system right now, and it's just crazy what's happening in college sports right now on the women and men's side. The athletes are just so fast. It seems like we're in a shift for sure, where the athletes are just getting younger and younger, and they're being faster at younger ages. I definitely see America dominating for a little time. 

Can you talk about the moment you broke the 400m hurdles world record for a second time at the World Championships in Doha 2019?

When I broke the record the first time, there was this feeling that something special was about to happen, whether that was going to be the world record, I did not know. I definitely thought I was capable of running fast. My coach had told me I was capable of running the world record, he told me that I should break the world record, but really what cemented that was even my training partner Brianna Rollins-McNeal looking at me saying that she couldn't wait to see me do it. And after the race she couldn't wait for that moment, it was already planted in her mind and she believed it so much and it made me truly believe it.

Doping is still on the rise despite federations doing their best to curb it. What more can be done to prevent doping?

It’s hard. The testing process is already very invasive and we're doing our whereabouts every day, athletes have to provide 60-minute time windows, they have to kind of tell their whereabouts on a day to day basis and we're doing pretty much what we can as a sport to kind of reduce that. I only know as an American athlete what that looks like but I don't know what that looks like across the countries. 

Dalilah Muhammad factfile 

DoB: February 7, 1990

Nationality: American 

Olympics: 400m hurdles gold at 2016 Rio Games and silver at 2020 Tokyo. Also, 4x400m relay gold at Tokyo.

World Championships: 400m hurdles silver at 2013 and 2017 London editions; 400m gold and 4x400m relay gold at Doha; 400m hurdles bronze at 2022 Eugene.

World records: Broke 400m hurdles world record twice; 52.20 sec at USA Track & Field Championships at Des Moines on  July 28, 2019 and 52.16 sec at World Athletics Championships in Doha on October 4. 

Dalilah is the second female 400m hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic, World titles and broken the world record.

Note: The 400m hurdles world record is currently held by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (50.37).