A tearful Lynsey Sharp has claimed it is now hard to compete against Caster Semenya and other hyperandrogenic athletes after the rule to suppress testosterone levels was overturned.
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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, 2016. “It’s not about discriminating [against] people and looking at them in terms of how they look, how they speak and how they have run. It’s all about sports”.
Niyonsaba followed the South African in second place, clocking 1:56.49, with Kenya’s Margaret Wambui bagging the bronze in a new personal best of 1:56.89.
“You just need to lead by example”, she added. The coaches told me: just focus on running, nothing else. “I have a very quick last 200, I just have to utilize it”. “We just have to utilize it”.
“Caster once again hoisted our national flag high with pride and the world watched and observed as our national anthem was sung”.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) believes hyperandrogenic athletes should not be allowed to compete unless they take action to suppress their naturally high testosterone levels.
She has since been diagnosed with hyperandrogenism, which means her testosterone levels are far in excess of the vast majority of women.
But under a legal challenge, the IAAF was forced to drop the testosterone-limiting rules previous year.
After winning the silver medal in London four years ago, the 25-year-old South African has recorded three of the four fastest times in the world this year. She also produced her trademark celebration: She pulled her arms up and flexed her bicep muscles, then brushed her hands across her shoulders – the way she brushed off her rivals.
“But to run faster than I ever had before in the Olympic final is the best I could do”.
“The race was a little bit quick”.
Semenya, the centre of a debate surrounding testosterone levels in female athletes and a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision taken in July 2015 that put a stop to testosterone regulation in female athletes, had said before the race that she was not interested in breaking Jarmila Kratochvílová’s world record of 1:53.28 set in 1983. I refused to answer questions from any other media on the topic.
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Former marathon world champion Paula Radcliffe said she understood why Sharp felt so strongly about Semenya. “It was to be expected that everybody would be there”. Not for one second did they doubt that she’s make the country proud – and indeed she did.
