Stigma still casting a cloud over Caster

On Caster Semenya’s mantelpiece at home, or wherever she keeps her collection of accolades, there are as many medals and trophies missing as there are items on display.

From the first time a teacher at an opposing school accused her of gender cheating, Semenya has been an outcast of sorts; an unwanted conundrum who causes headaches for administrators, scientists and lawyers, not because of what she does or who she is, but simply because of the way she was born.

After winning her first world title as a teenager, she was forced to skip the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi after being “suspended” while she underwent tests and treatment.

In 2011 and 2012, having been cleared to compete against women, she returned to the track to bag silver medals at the World Championships in Daegu and the Olympic Games in London, though on both occasions she took a back seat to Russian cheat Mariya Savinova.

With Savinova’s case still under appeal, and Semenya likely to wait some time for an official ceremony, there remain two silver medals on her mantelpiece where there should be gold.

Even now, eight years after the controversy first broke around her gender, she continues to be submerged below the global limelight.

With an unresolved issue hanging over her head, as the unwilling poster child of hyperandrogenism, Semenya carries with her a stigma on the international stage.

While the South African public has embraced her as the country’s top female athlete, the foreign perception seems to differ significantly.

With the media awaiting a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on whether

Wesley Bo on

athletes with her condition should have their natural testosterone levels suppressed, Semenya has become the focal point of a case which actually doesn’t involve her at all, and this week the IAAF council and members made a silent statement by omitting her from the list of finalists for the organisation’s annual awards ceremony.

For the second year in a row, Semenya was nominated for the IAAF World Athlete-of-the-Year accolade, and though last season there were other international stars who achieved more than she did, the South African’s absence leaves a gaping void among this year’s three women’s finalists.

Solid cases can be made in support of Belgian heptathlete Nafi Thiam, who climbed to third place in the all-time world rankings with 7013 points, and Greek pole vaulter Katerina Stefanidi, who rose to a tie for fourth in the all-time pole vault list with her 4.91m personal best.

It’s hard to find any logical reason, however, that Ethiopian distance runner Almaz Ayana got the nod ahead of Semenya in a widely inclusive voting process.

Ayana was nowhere near as spectacular as she was last season when she set a 10 000m world record to win Olympic gold, earning the year-end IAAF award.

She won the world title over 25 laps, as expected, and bagged silver over 5 000m, but while she was ranked first this season in the 10 000m event, Ayana was more than a minute outside her global best.

In comparison, Semenya secured 800m gold and 1 500m bronze at the World Championships, shattered the world best over the 600m distance and went unbeaten in the 800m event.

She also set four of the seven fastest times recorded this year over two laps and her 1:55.16 national record in London placed her eighth on the all-time women’s 800m list.

It’s not the first time Semenya has been sidelined through no fault of her own, and until Cas makes a decision on the IAAF’s suspended hyperandrogenism rule, she is likely to remain too controversial a figure to be recognised for her achievements abroad.

There is little doubt, however, that Semenya will step on stage at the SA Sports Awards tomorrow night, and though she might never shake off her unwanted stigma from an international perspective, at least she knows she has support at home.