Semenya first made headlines when she won the world championships in dominating fashion in 2009.
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“Every athlete’s dream is to win a medal, especially in the Olympics”, said Semenya. The IAAF has never commented publicly on the medical details of Semenya’s case. South Africa won the 800 meter race, Team USA won the relay and Spain took the high jump. “It wasn’t about running fast, it was about running a good race”. Organizers, respecting the IAAF suspension, didn’t let her.
She said previously: “Everyone can see it’s two separate races so there’s nothing I can do”.
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.
Semenya has been cleared to run as a woman, but the controversy surrounding her eligibility remains.
Caster Semenya leaves the airport with her partner Violet Raseboya. Many believe that left Semenya, and others, free to run again with their very high naturally-occurring testosterone levels unchecked.
“I think when you walk out of your apartment you think about performing, you do not think about (what) your opponents look like … the advice is everybody is just to go out there and have fun”.
That did not materialise as she pulled out of the shorter event to focus on her specialty – a decision that looks to have been the right one after she exploded to life in the final 200m of Saturday night’s (Sunday morning, SA time) 800m final to win gold for South Africa.
Her distance of 63.54 was the sixth best out of group A, but was some way behind leader Maria Andrejczyk from Poland, who managed a throw of 67.11. The Russian is facing a lifetime ban from the sport after evidence implicating her in doping.
Semenya paid lobola for her partner previous year, and they officially began their lives as marital partners.
In terms of results on the track, it’s the toughest period in Semenya’s career.
The athletics governing body became skeptical of her exceptional performance and asked her to go through gender verification and dope tests.
She won in a personal best time of 1:55:29, setting a new record time for a South African and recording the fastest 800m time in the world this year.
Semenya’s breakthrough world title seven years ago pushed the IAAF to introduce rules limiting testosterone in female athletes.
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Now, apparently, the worldwide body that oversees sport has decided that testosterone doesn’t “necessarily give female athletes an advantage”.
