South Africa’s Caster Semenya smiles after winning the gold medal in the women’s 800-meter final during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 20, .
Advertisement
Burundi’s Francina Niyonsaba, world champion in indoor track, and Kenyan Margaret Wambui, bronze victor in 2016 and world champion under-20 two years ago, aspired to the silver medal, given the enormous superiority of the South African in the second turn.
Semenya finished a whole second ahead of the next-closest finisher, setting a personal best with a time of 1:55.28.
She has been scrutinised and stared at and questioned but on Saturday night came a moment simply to marvel at the supreme athleticism of Caster Semenya – a 25-year-old woman who, when all was said and done, powered her way to an 800m gold with an outstanding performance.
Semenya has dominated the 800m this season and there had been speculation she could take down Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1983 time of 1:53.28 seconds – the longest standing athletics world record, set in an era when eastern European doping was rife.
They say Semenya has an unfair biological because her testosterone is well above natural levels in a woman.
Semenya has previously said: ‘I think sports are meant to unite people.
Lake cleared 1.93m but that was four centimetres off the winning jump, although the gold medal was secured with a success at one centimetre lower than the new British record achieved by Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptathlon. Alarmists fear that athletes such as Semenya will blur the biological line so thoroughly that we might as well cancel male and female categories and compete together in one however-you-want-to-identify-yourself free-for-all.
But some people defended Sharp’s comments, pointing out that she is very knowledgable about hyperandrogenism.
“Every athlete’s dream is to win a medal, especially in the Olympics”, said Semenya.
The IAAF introduced new rules in 2011 regarding female athletes with hyperandrogenism-the term used to describe the excessive production of testosterone.
It gives you the heebie jeebies just thinking about it doesn’t it?
Semenya has been the subject of controversy throughout her entire worldwide career, but her margin of victory in this race left nothing up for debate. It suspended the rules previous year, judging that they were based on uncertain science.
“I used to be a sprinter, I ran the 100m, 200m in high school”, Semenya said of her finish.
“I think that tonight is all about performance. I just didn’t get there with them”.
Advertisement
Semenya spent 11 months on the sidelines while she had tests but was cleared to compete in 2010.
