Caster Semenya, the South African runner, has been under enormous pressure throughout her career: as long as she wins races, her gender will be scrutinized. Now Semenya tells her own story in a book full of righteous anger.
Semenya underwent an invasive gender test at the age of 18 during the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. She won the gold medal, but World Athletics subsequently banned her from competing until she lowered her testosterone levels. An Australian newspaper published the results of this test – and when she read the article, she discovered that she did not have a uterus, but an undescended testicle.
World Athletics suggested she have a gonadectomy, which she angrily refused (“Tell them I told them to start circumcising their mothers”), but Semenya began taking medication to alter her testosterone levels, which led to terrible side effects.
She was hounded by the press and felt betrayed by unsupportive hangers-on. “The girl I was before I boarded the plane to Berlin—happy, playful, innocent, eager, hopeful—is gone.”
It would be impossible to leave this book without feeling compassion for Semyon, now 32 years old. There were moments when I actually gasped at the inhumane treatment she and the other runners—especially all women of color—were subjected to.
In her book, Semenya repeats very clear statements that affirm her gender: “I want everyone to understand that… I am a woman,” she writes. “I know I look like a man. I know I talk like a man and maybe even walk and dress like a man. But I’m not a man.”
She rejects the term “intersex” or the acronym DSD (difference of sex development). “It’s difficult to explain the psychological violence that comes from having one’s gender identity questioned or taken away,” she says.
But Semenya Do is enthusiastic about the fact that she is a “manly woman” – something that has always been accepted in her community growing up in South Africa, as has her lesbianism. The race to be yourself describes his childhood in a rural village without running water; She learned to run without a trainer or coach.
Her writing is simple but powerful, and although it talks too much about childhood, it is very moving when we get to her stories about race. She admits she almost gave up midway through the 2012 London Olympics final before deciding:Let’s strike …And then I ran like I’ve never run in my life. Always. It felt like I was running For All my life.”
Their legal battles are also extremely compelling. In July, Semenya won a claim that World Athletics discriminated against her, although testosterone testing remains in place. Semenya believes that attempts to stop her from competing were “personal” and has particular disdain for Seb Coe (“the little man”).
It would have been helpful to have a more detailed interpretation of the science she sets out to debunk at the beginning of the book. It’s not an easy matter – you understand the demand for a level playing field for women’s sports – but Semenya initially refuses to cooperate.
When they told me it was there, I had a vagina. I don’t have a penis.”
However, she later offers a clearer defense, pointing out the selectivity and hypocrisy of World Athletics in preventing women with high testosterone levels from competing.
First, she argues that the decision was based on just one study, which the World Medical Association condemned. Semenya also points out that many sports stars have beneficial genetic traits: We don’t ban Usain Bolt because he has millions more fast-twitch muscle fibers.
But the strongest justification is perhaps the simplest: “Whatever illness I say, it doesn’t give me the same speed advantage on the track as a human.”
Semenya didn’t even break the women’s 800m record, let alone match the men’s time. “If speed depended on testosterone, then why wasn’t I as fast as my male counterparts?”
However, this is not a book about self-pity. A self-proclaimed tough fighter, Semenya also tends to proclaim her greatness. However, her resilience is amazing considering the hardships she faced, and her defiance certainly saved her. “It was difficult to keep the hopes of millions alive; It was just as hard to endure the cruelty.”