South Africa’s Caster Semenya leads the women’s 800-meter final during athletics competitions at the Summer Olympics inside Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the rules past year, which has allowed hyperandrogenic women to run in Rio without treatment.
Caster Semenya is the Olympic champion almost seven years to the day after she arrived in track and field and sparked a controversy so complex and so sensitive, the sport is still struggling to deal with it.
“The coach told me to be patient, wait for the right moment”, Semenya said. “You can see that it’s easy for them”. We rely on people at the top sorting it out. “The public can see how hard it is with the change of rule but all we can do is give it our best”. Semenya has been scrutinized, criticized and analyzed for seven years now so she’s used to the assumption that she’s some kind of freak.
“They’re making you a better person”, she said. I feel a bit disappointed. “I don’t see how you can stop her from running”. 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.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Caster”.
“Excuse me, my friend”, she said.
Semenya has dominated the event this season, with three of the fastest four times, but has had to contend with renewed controversies about her gender.
“Of course”, said Semenya, when asked if she was indeed happier, “that’s what happens when you get married”.
“When asked on live TV, I felt I gave an honest and diplomatic response”. But Saturday, Semenya simply refused to answer questions about the IAAF’s binary definitions of what a woman is, or isn’t. As much as you have fun in training.
Before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Sharp told The Daily Telegraph, there were “obvious” athletes with heightened testosterone amid rumours that there were two more hyperandrogenous competitors running in last night’s final.
Semenya has faced continued questions over her eligibility to race since her impressive 2009 World Championship win as an 18-year-old, with concerns raised that she should not be able to run as a woman. Her supporters have argued that many athletes are born with biological advantages of one kind or another, and it would be unfair to require her to undergo surgery or take chemical treatment to reduce her testosterone levels – as some athletics regulators have tried to demand.
“It’s a very peculiar situation, nearly unheard of in sports as far I as I know”, said Luxembourg runner Charline Mathias, who did not make the semis.
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As Semenya crossed the finish line in Rio to become the Olympic champion in the women’s 800m at the weekend, some television commentators offered only lukewarm appraisals of her achievement while others expressed outright dismay that she had been allowed to compete freely in the first place.
