Yet another hurdle for SA’s golden girl

VERY few South African athletes have had to endure the level and type of adversity experienced by world champion Caster Semenya.

In 2009, then just 18, Semenya was thrust into the global spotlight when she won gold in the women’s 800m World Athletics Championship in Berlin.

She beat her competitors with relative ease. But the muscular teenager barely had time to celebrate her victory before she was told she would have to undergo testing to verify her gender.

Soon her gold medal win was overshadowed by questions over whether she was a man or a woman.

However, South Africa rallied behind its golden girl. Former president Jacob Zuma at the time said: “It is one thing to seek to ascertain whether or not an athlete has an unfair advantage over others, but it is another to publicly humiliate an honest professional and competent athlete”.

Now, just weeks after a magnificent performance at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, where she won gold medals in the 800m and 1 500m women’s finals, Semenya faces yet another hurdle.

The IAAF, which is the governing body of world athletics, last week announced new regulations for a separate classification to be known as Athlete with Differences of Sexual Development, or DSDs. Athletes who fall within this grouping – which includes Semenya – would have to take medication similar to hormonal contraceptives to reduce naturally occurring testosterone.

The said athletes may only have testosterone levels double those of 99% of all women – and in the case of intersex athletes, levels could be 10 times higher.

The new regulations are expected to come into effect on November 1 and athletes will have to either take the testosterone-inhibiting medication or step down from competing.

Sports Minister Tokozile Xasa has already indicated that the South African government will challenge the new regulations, which are believed to be aimed directly at Semenya. The matter could possibly go to the court of arbitration for sport.

In a Sunday Times report yesterday, Katrina Karkazis from the Stanford Centre for Biomedical Ethics in California described the lack of science behind the policy as racist and discriminatory.

Semenya was previously required by the IAAF to take suppressing medication, but the court of arbitration for sport overruled the decision almost three years ago, saying there was no evidence to suggest high testosterone levels gave female athletes an unfair advantage.

The last nine years of her professional career, have been no walk in the park.

Semenya has had to endure constant judgment from the public and fellow athletes for being born with hyperandrogenism. Despite the controversy and negativity, the media-shy Semenya has done what she knows best – and that is to run.

She has remained focused on training and pushing herself beyond her limits.

Semenya is a trailblazer and bona fide champion. She not only unites the nation through sport, but is an inspiration to many young girls and women who do not fit society’s picture of what a woman should look and sound like.