Caster Semenya

Chelsea

Caster Semenya grew up running barefoot on a grassy track in Limpopo, South Africa. Her natural talent was evident early on to her family, her coaches, and her fellow athletes. In 2008, the same year she graduated from high school, she finished seventh in the 800-meter at the World Junior Championships. During the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, she exploded onto the international stage, winning gold in the 800-meter race and clocking her then personal best of 1:55.45.

As journalist Ariel Levy wrote in her New Yorker profile of Caster in November of that year: “She has a powerful stride and remarkable efficiency of movement: in footage of the World Championships, you can see other runners thrashing behind her, but her trunk stays still, even as she is pumping her muscle-bound arms up and down. Her win looks effortless, inevitable.” Even watching the video and knowing the result, I was rooting for Caster as she emerged from the middle of the pack, made her way to the front, and pulled far ahead of her competitors, with just one quick look over her shoulder to make sure no one was gaining on her. (No one was.)

Caster’s exceptional talent, her dramatic improvement from the previous year’s competition, and her muscular build drew intense scrutiny—an all-too-common development, especially for women athletes of color. So did her confident, unapologetic post-race interviews and on-the-track celebrations. (Why are women’s celebrations of hard-fought victory so often treated as unseemly when there is absolutely nothing wrong with them and so much that is right?) The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) forced Caster to undergo invasive “gender testing,” ostensibly to assess her hormones and physiology, to determine whether they would allow her to compete against other women athletes. She wasn’t allowed to compete for eleven months, until the IAAF finally cleared her—but the fight wasn’t over.

Two years later, in 2012, I remember watching from home as Caster carried the South African flag during the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics in London. She won a silver medal in the 800-meter, which was later upgraded to gold when the winner was found guilty of doping; Caster passed all her drug tests. In 2016, she became the first person ever to win a gold medal in the 400- , 800- , and 1500-meter races at the South African championships. That year, she also won gold in the 800-meter in Rio at the Olympics.

In 2018, the IAAF put forward new regulations targeting athletes with differences in sex development. Under their proposed rules, women athletes with higher levels of testosterone who compete in events between 400 meters and a mile would have to take drugs or undergo invasive surgery to reduce their testosterone in order to continue to compete against women. It is not a coincidence that their new rules apply specifically to several of the races Caster has won. Caster, along with South Africa’s track and field federation, challenged the rule. She called it “discriminatory, irrational, unjustifiable,” and she’s right. Unfortunately, in May 2019, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration in Sports officially gave the IAAF permission to move forward with the rule, effectively denying Caster the ability to compete in the body she was born with.

The South African government has already said they plan to appeal, pointing to a stunning lack of scientific evidence that higher testosterone levels actually give an unfair advantage at any distance. In fact, the research that the IAAF cited to make their case has been repeatedly called into question by the scientific community. Additionally, the World Medical Association, which represents more than a hundred physician associations and millions of doctors around the globe, has called on its members not to follow the IAAF recommendations, because these new rules contradict their core ethical standards. Members of the public health community have also expressed alarm that sports governing bodies now seem to be in the position of defining gender—a disturbing trend that should be stopped. Caster has repeatedly said she will not take the testosterone-suppressing drugs mandated by the IAAF should she wish to compete. She’s following science and doctors’ medical advice; the IAAF isn’t.

“I just want to run naturally, the way I was born. It is not fair that I am told I must change. It is not fair that people question who I am. I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.”

—CASTER SEMENYA

Caster has been treated unfairly not only by the governing bodies of her sport but often by the media. One thoughtful analysis by writer Parker Molloy pointed out, “Whether journalists knew it or not, they were priming their readers to think Semenya’s win was unjust. Making matters worse, these stories included quotes from other athletes saying things like ‘She’s not a woman. She’s a man,’ and a dismissive ‘Just look at her.’… [Y]ou’d be hard-pressed to find a story about Semenya that didn’t make mention of her eligibility or include a quote about ‘fairness’ from a competitor upset about not finding a spot on the podium.” The sexism and bigotry aren’t even subtle.

In the meantime, Caster is still running, competing, and living her life. She married her wife, Violet, in 2015, and credits her with encouraging Caster to finish her college degree. She started the Caster Semenya Foundation to coach and support young athletes. “We as women need to come together and support each other,” she has said. “Without that, you will still feel discriminated, you still feel oppressed, you still feel criticized in everything that you do, and you will still feel like you are not recognized.”

The debate Caster has been pulled into has raised big questions: Who gets to define gender? And isn’t the idea of a level playing field in sports a myth, anyway? After all, no two bodies are the same. Some people are naturally taller, others shorter; some more muscular, others less so. As Ariel Levy asked: “Is Caster Semenya’s alleged extra testosterone really so different?” The answer—clearly—is no.

“I am 97 percent sure you don’t like me. But I’m 100 percent sure I don’t care.”

—CASTER SEMENYA, IN RESPONSE TO NEW IAAF RULES

Through it all, Caster has made an impressive and deliberate effort not to let anyone undermine her success, her self-confidence, or her commitment to championing younger athletes. She remembers Nelson Mandela telling her: “People can talk, people can do whatever they want to do, but it’s up to you to live for yourself first before others.” She sums it up this way: “Be fearless, be brave, be bold, love yourself.” In the end, that may just be the gutsiest thing any of us can do.