Salon.com > Caster Semenya

Semenya in Olympic debut

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 14:15:00 +0000

LONDON (AP) — Caster Semenya perched herself on a lane marker behind the start of the 800 meters and took a few moments to absorb what it feels like to be an Olympian.

She took some deep breaths, then got up, walked to the stagger start and went straight to work. Making her Olympic debut three years after being forced to undergo gender tests that cast doubt over her future in track and field, Semenya finished second in her preliminary heat Wednesday.

The 80,000-seat stadium was almost full, but she's used to big crowds. The whole experience, though, was something new.

"It was a very important race," Semenya said. "It was a tactical race. I wanted the race to be a fast one. To be a good contender, you have to run under 2 minutes."

This is the Semenya of 2012: She's 21 and she's reserved, almost guarded, and generally restricts her public comments to topics of competition.

And who could blame her?

She was still a teenager when she had no choice but to endure having the most intimate details of her life debated and discussed in the global media.

Semenya was sidelined for 11 months — while track and field's governing body decided whether or not to allow her to compete — after she won the 2009 world title at age 18, posting a stunning time of 1 minute, 55.45 seconds.

Semenya’s sex test nightmare continues

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0000

After 11-months of international scrutiny, Caster Semenya was officially cleared last month to compete as a woman -- but it seems the South African runner's metaphorical marathon is far from over. You didn't think the debate over her sex would be settled once the I.A.A.F. issued its ruling, did you? (Yes? Aw, your naive optimism is cute. No? Wise cynic, teach me your ways.) The New York Times reports today on Semenya's Sunday win in the women's 800 meters and quotes a couple competitors who haven't exactly been put at ease by the I.A.A.F.'s verdict.

Britain's Jemma Simpson acknowledged that "it's obviously a human rights issue," but quickly added that "human rights affect everyone in the race, not just one person." Simpson, who placed fourth during Sunday's race, went on to say: "I think every competitor has got to be considered in this kind of thing, and it's just like, maybe for the spectators it's fair, but we spend our whole lives trying to do this. We train hard, and it can just be taken away from you."

Canadian competitor Diane Cummins finished eighth and was, perhaps unsurprisingly, less delicate in her commentary:

Semenya cleared for competition

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:45:00 +0000

World champion Caster Semenya is back on track, literally. Nearly a year after the 19-year-old runner from South Africa was forced to undergo gender verification testing, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced today that it has cleared Semenya for participation in her sport. Effective immediately, she will finally be allowed to race in women's events.

The IAAF, which is the governing body for track and field, said that it accepts the conclusions of the medical team that examined Semenya -- though these conclusions, and all details, remain confidential, according to the New York Times. In a press statement, Semenya said: "I am thrilled to enter the global athletics arena once again and look forward to competing with all the disputes behind me." Her first race after the long, unwanted, absence from competition may be at the African championships in Kenya in late July, or the Commonwealth Games in India in October, according to the Associated Press.

What makes a woman?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:15:00 +0000

No one knows the definitive difference between men and women. That may sound like the dubious thesis of a women's studies 101 essay, the result of feminist philosophy carried to its ultimate political extreme, but it's plainly true. For proof, you need only read Ariel Levy's sprawling article in this week's New Yorker about Caster Semenya. Not only does it offer the richest telling yet of the scandal surrounding the 18-year-old runner by grounding it in the history of sports and racism, and the culture of the 18-year-old's hometown in South Africa -- it also puts it in the absurd and unscientific context of sex testing.

We can all easily sketch out the differences between the sexes: Women have breasts, ovaries, a uterus and a vagina; men have testicles and a penis -- end of story, right? For most folks, it is, but then there are the exceptions: A person can be born with one testicle and one ovary, or with a penis, uterus and ovaries. Someone with XY chromosomes can have both a vagina and undescended testes because of a condition that blocks their bodies from responding to testosterone. You can have two X chromosomes, one of which is merged with a region of the Y chromosome. And, and, and ...

Caster Semenya a golden girl once more

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Sport and Recreation South Africa has released a statement saying that Caster Semenya -- the 18-year-old runner who took gold in the 800-meter World Championships last August, only to be subjected to gender testing and public speculation about her eligibility to compete as a woman -- will be allowed to keep her medal, title and prize money because she "has been found to be innocent of any wrong."

Furthermore, the statement says results of the International Association of Athletics Federations' gender testing on Semenya will not be made public, because it's nobody's damned business. "The implications of the scientific findings on Caster's health and life going forward will be analysed by Caster and she will make her own decision on her future. Whatever she decides, ours is to respect her decision."

Do we really want sports defining gender?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:13:00 +0000

This weekend, the IAAF, the authority which governs world track and field, announced that they were working on a definition of gender.

“We were in Copenhagen (at the International Olympic Committee meetings) and I asked my colleagues from other sports if they had a definition and nobody has one,” said general secretary Pierre Weiss. “But nobody [else] has had the problem so far.”

“The problem” is Caster Semenya, whose gender testing ordeal has been broadcast to the world. It's also Santhi Soundarajan, who was stripped of a silver medal won in the 2006 Asian Games after failing her gender test, Ewa Klowbuskowa, who was banned from competing after failing a chromosome test (she later gave birth to a son), and other female track and field athletes who have been outed as intersex.

Caster Semenya is not a hermaphrodite

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Today the story of Caster Semenya, the South-African sprinter who’s been at the center of a gender controversy since her surprising win at the World Athletics Championships, has taken a heart-wrenching turn. After doubts emerged that Semenya was really a woman – prompted by her ambiguous appearance, and tests showing elevated testosterone levels -- she was tested (possibly without her consent) by the IAAF. Now the results of her gender testing have leaked, and, if the reports are to be believed, they show that she is, in fact, biologically intersex.

According to the British Times, a source close to the investigation claims the testing has revealed that "the 18-year-old had internal testes and no womb or ovaries." This has led some media outlets to call her a “hermaphrodite” (and some even more inaccurately calling her “a woman … and a man”), but the truth is probably considerably more complicated. The term hermaphrodite (some scientists prefer the more accurate term “ovotesticular disorders of sexual development”) refers to people who have both ovarian and testicular tissue. If it’s true that Semenya doesn’t have any ovaries, it’s likely that she has one of a host of other possible intersex conditions.