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Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi out of Olympics 400m race, Internet calls it 'racist'

Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi was found ineligible to be classified as women due to high testosterone levels

The furor caused on social media when star sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson was given a month-long ban by the USADA ahead of the Tokyo Olympics didn't even settle down and another sprint duo from Namibia have been disqualified from Tokyo Olympics. Richardson was disqualified after she tested positive for marijuana. Now, the Namibian sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi have been asked to withdraw from their participation in the Olympics 400m event after the duo was ineligible to be classified as women due to high testosterone levels.

Mboma and Masilingi's coach Henk Botha confirmed the news on Thursday, July 1. Botha said that he could not speak about the situation in detail, as he just received the report from World Athletics regarding Mboma and Masilingi.

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As soon as the news broke out people swarmed to Twitter with angry reactions over the decision calling it a 'racist' move to 'keep black women from competing' in the Olympics. Apparently, the same rules affected sprinters, Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui's participation.

Who are Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi?

The sprinter duo of Mboma and Masilingi took the athletics world by storm, giving some top-notch performances in the European athletics circuit this year in the 400m. Mboma, all of 18, stormed to the finish line in a record time of 48.54 secs on Wednesday, June 30 which effectively placed her as the seventh fastest athlete in that event’s history. Masilingi, on the other hand, has a personal best time of 49.53 secs. As the duo were looking forward to Tokyo Olympics, they found themselves removed from the 400m event page. However, they are not disqualified from competing in the 200m event. 

According to New Era Newspaper, coach Botha confirmed the news and said, "Yeah, seems like the natural testosterone levels too high for 400m. They (Mboma and Masilingi) may only compete in 200m." Reportedly, some other African athletes, Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui faced disqualification in their respective events because of high testosterone levels. 

'Just say you don’t want black women already'

People took to Twitter in huge numbers and expressed their anger on the issue, blaming ardent 'transphobia' and 'racism'. One user tweeted, "What? they are biological women so why can’t they compete? Just say you don’t want black women already." Another wrote, "Transphobia started this, racism is fueling it. These women have no reason to be banned, except irrational fear of "different"." One user commented, "Men who have naturally high levels of testosterone will be admired and lauded for their extraordinary athletic achievements - not banned from competing because “it’s not fair to the other athletes"."

Another tweet read, "Vile racism to protect the egos of insecure white athletes. Pathetic." One user asked, "Ok, I'm gonna ask this question out of complete ignorance being nobody else seems to have asked it. Why are they not eligible for female classification? Does that mean too much testosterone?? In that case that would be considered performance enhancement no??"