Semenya’s race more than just about gold
RIO DE JANEIRO: It is the run that the media have waited for, and they have been made to stand by until the penultimate day of the Rio Olympics.
South Africa’s Caster Semenya will start tonight’s 800m women’s final (2.15am SA time tomorrow) as the overwhelming favourite, and finally get a chance to have her say when the race is done. Or, perhaps, she won’t.
The 2012 silver medallist has sparked thousands of stories in the press, without saying a single word, apart from a short statement via the South African team’s media liaison after the heats and semi-finals.
Semenya cruised through both races, confirming her standing as the best 800m runner this year.
For many, the question about the final is not whether she will win but by how far.
Among all of that, the question of gender will inevitably rear its insensitive head again.
Someone will put his hand up and try to provoke a reaction from the 25-year-old, knowing that it may well be the last chance to do so.
The expectation is that the International Association of Athletics Federations, led by the media-hungry Sebastian Coe, will revisit the testosterone-level testing once the Olympics is done, and that Semenya may find herself the unwilling face of one of the most awkward questions in sport.
The print assault on her has been somewhat subdued so far, but that is only because the writers of the press have been distracted by other headline acts at the Olympics.
Tonight’s final programme of the Rio Games has Semenya’s race as one of the main features, so scrutiny is inevitable.
However, amid the sensationalism, there do appear to be level heads. The New York Times delivered a weighty, considered piece on the matter, a far cry from the callous comments made by Paula Radcliffe four year ago, when she said a race with Semenya in it was “no longer a sport”.
On some level, such dismissive, demeaning discussion about her must prick at Semenya.
There is a fear she could retire from competition after this, and save herself the humiliation of being the focal point of a debate that has no physiological basis, but is driven by a hunger for a headline, regardless of the hurt it causes to individuals.
Semenya’s rivals in the final have also had a word, guarded though it was.
The US’s Ajee Wilson insisted that the issue needed to be revisited.
“At this point, what I think doesn’t really matter. We’re all on the track. Whoever’s on there is racing,” she said.
It is easy to forget that Semenya has not bent any rules. She did not make them, either, yet she is being made to feel as if her medal in waiting may well be the most awkward in Olympic history.
Some say that it borders on bullying, this tarnishing of the strides that she has made. No one yet knows what she really makes of all this, but tonight we may finally get the answer.
The form book says Semenya should win, comfortably so, thanks to her power down the home stretch. But, for many, the real story will only unravel in the bowels of the Stadio Olimpico, when she finally looks the media in the eye, and lets them know what has been on her mind for the past few weeks and, perhaps, years.
If her anticipated victory gets lost in the toxic aftermath, that would be a terrific shame, because the chance to be Olympic champion, and soak in the ovation, may only come once in a career.
The world waits for her words tonight, and then for the words that will build on that, from every media house in the world. It is the most anticipated press conference of the Games.
But, don’t forget, there is a massive final before all of that madness.