Shortly before the start of the Olympics, Semenya dropped her bid to run both the 400m and the 800m with the aim of winning the gold medal in the two-lap race.
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Semenya won her country’s second gold in Rio and South Africans reciprocated with a heroic welcome for the athlete when she touched down in Jo’burg.
Try as she might, the gold medal favorite in Saturday’s 800 meter finals can’t seem to shake the controversy of being an intersex athlete, otherwise defined as an anatomically and genetically ambiguous person.
Niyonsaba came back and briefly led but Semenya looked effortless as she regained ascendency at the 200m mark and eased home. And she did compete under those conditions in London four years ago, claiming silver.
The two lovebirds drove away for merrymaking after mingling with fans at the airport. We’re not here to talk about IAAF (the athletics governing body), not here to talk about some speculations.
Her competitors had raised concern that the condition gave her an unfair advantage.
“The coach told me to be patient, wait for the right moment”, Semenya said. Many believe that left Semenya, and others, free to run again with their very high naturally-occurring testosterone levels.
The 25-year-old, who found herself at the centre of a gender row following her victory at the 2009 World Championships and had to undergo gender testing before being cleared to return to competition, won her semifinal in one minute 58.15 seconds. But CAS only suspended the regulations, rather than overturn them entirely, giving the IAAF until July 2017 to produce evidence that high testosterone gives hyperandrogenic women a significant performance advantage. The IAAF’s ruling was just the latest intrusion, until India’s fastest woman, Dutee Chand, challenged the worldwide sporting body. She has also received a fierce outpouring of support from South Africans, including celebrities and politicians.
Inspiring as her words were, the truth is that not many in the athletics world think like she does. She’s since taken her personal best beneath the 1:58 marker, and become a canny racer, reaching podiums at Commonwealth and European level. “It was just about being patient and do what you do best”. It was the latest in a long history of “sex tests” for female athletes ranging from humiliating inspections of private parts to swabbing for chromosomes.
“This is a complicated medical issue, but I don’t think it is actually a complicated procedure”, Coe said.
“Tonight is all about performances”, she said.
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The runner took to social media just after securing her spot in the women’s 800m finals at the Games on Friday morning to acknowledge her supporters.
