Her time of 1:59:31 in Wednesday’s heat certainly didn’t throw down a gauntlet. But Paula Radcliffe, a legend in the sport said if she won gold in the Olympics it “would be a disgrace to the sport”. The sentiment is admirable because who can possibly compute the damage being done to a 25-year-old woman who is de-personalised by this discussion whilst just seeking to fit in as best she can.
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The 800m runner is perhaps the most controversial athlete in athletics, owing to a condition she has called hyperandrogenism which means she has testosterone levels well above those of the average woman. Testosterone is a strength-building hormone in both men and, usually in far lower levels, in women. In its defence, the IAAF’s threshold for testosterone levels in female athletes was set at 10 nanomoles a litre.
Female athletes were subjected to infamous “nude parades”, where they were examined by a panel of doctors. “If you’re just watching the splits they’re running, it’s not the way a woman’s 800 usually unfolds”.
At the other end of the spectrum of opinion was Tsepang Sello from Lesotho, who did not advance.
Then along came the Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, also an “intersex” athlete, who found herself struck from the 2014 Commonwealth Games list, handed an indefinite ban because she too was diagnosed with hyper-androgenism. It was also the fastest time by anyone since 2008. “From what I’ve seen, people are complaining about it”, said Everard. It is uncertain if she took the testosterone-lowering medication or if this is why it took her years to regain her teenage dominance.
Her heat, it nearly goes without saying, was a breeze. She trains. She suffers.
The Edinburgh hope knew what she wanted – and vowed to get it – after watching Kelly Holmes’s eyes bulge in astonishment when she pulled off her Olympic double in Athens 12 years ago. The teenager had lopped seven seconds off her PB in less than nine months, racing away with the biggest margin in world champion history. There’s a lot of discussion around her. “From that year onwards was when I started to take things more seriously”.
The IAAF now has two years to make its argument why the rule should be reinstated.
Though she still won silver medals in the 2011 Championships and the London 2012 Olympics, her times were much slower that in previous competitions. Those who say that gender testing is archaic and cruel make the argument that all kinds of athletes have natural genetic advantages that give them an edge over their competitors.
Avoiding the attention from the global media Semenya high-five a fellow journalist in the mixed zone but walked past a few interested onlookers.
Ajee Wilson was in Semenya’s heat Wednesday, and chasing Semenya pushed the American runner to post her fastest time of the year, a 1:59.44 second-place finish. She didn’t talk to reporters, but team officials released an audio file.
“I am not focused on any world records, I am focused on enjoying my championship and it’s going to be a tough 800. The medals (are) gold medal, silver or bronze, so those are targets, so we are not going to worry about times at the moment”, she said. She was in cruise mode for about 600 meters of her race, only briefly unleashing her power with about 200 to go to ensure she was in a good position for the home straight. “I just tried to hang on and tried to feel my body first so I was comfortable”. “I get on really well with her”, Briton Lynsey Sharp, victor of her heat, has said. “It’s awful”, she said.
Some athletes said racing against Semenya has forced them to improve. For me, she’s not a woman. She is just trying to train and compete just like the rest of us so that is really not fair to her.
At one point she was told she had to take medication to reduce her testosterone level. “There definitely isn’t a clear one”.
This week several publications, including Sports Illustrated, asked: “Is it fair for Caster Semenya to compete against women at Rio?”
“We’ll see how the regulations will change”, said Fedronic. She totally kept her cool even at the back and worked her way through the field.
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