Here are five facts about Caster Semenya, who won a gold medal in the women’s 800m race on August 21 at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.
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Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba finished in 1:56.49 seconds to claim the silver, her country’s second medal in any sport at the Olympics.
Their conclusion, that Semenya’s high level of the hormoneis meets the IAAF’s classification of hyperandrogenism, is particularly upsetting to Black South Africans, who are haunted by the legacy of a woman who died 200 years ago this year.
Semenya certainly didn’t dodge the question, but rather confronted it straight on. “I think it is all about loving one another”, she said.
The Briton then broke into tears as she added: “I think the public can see as well how hard it is with the change of rule but all we can do is give it our best”. We’re not here to talk about IAAF, we’re not here to talk about some speculations.
“I think that tonight is all about performance. I think that’s important”.
If Semenya is intersex – which she has not said – she would not be the first intersex Olympic athlete.
“I was not really under pressure but obviously I had to do it for my people”. It’s not about discriminating people. They have mostly learned to keep their thoughts to themselves about whether their sport needs rules to somehow dial back the competitive advantage they perceive women like Semenya to have.
“It’s all about sports”. Look it up, if you must. “It was just about being patient and doing what you do best”.
The 25-year-old 2012 silver medalist turned on the gas with 150m to go, crossing the line more than 1.20 seconds clear in 1 minute, 55.28 seconds at the Olympic Stadium.
Semenya’s time was exactly two seconds slower than Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 33-year-old world record and, given how much she appeared to have left in the tank, that mark appears within her grasp.
Partially in response to those rumblings, world athletics chiefs implemented restrictions on testosterone levels in 2011.
“We know how each other feel, but it is out of our control and how much we rely on people at the top sorting it out”.
“It was just a fantastic race”. They are proud of me. “It’s you up against the world”.
“I needed to get my legs stronger so that I could be a better athlete, so here I am and all I want to do is be the best athlete that I can be”. So you just have to pull up your socks, and go out there with heart.
I have meant a lot to my people.
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Even the nation’s editorial cartoonists have been lauding her, with one cartoonist publishing an image of Ms. Semenya running triumphantly past her critics. Last December, for example, she married long-term partner Violet Raseboya, South Africa having legalised same-sex marriage in 2006.
