Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya on gender discrimination, learning to love herself, and her new memoir
Laiah Lyons // Women’s Issues // EEW Magazine Online
Caster Semenya, born female, has faced much gender discrimination for having higher levels of testosterone. She has been fighting for years for her women’s rights—and right to selfhood—and has penned a memoir about her journey. (Source: EEW Magazine)
In 2009, Caster Semenya, a then 18-year-old track star from South Africa, arrived in Berlin to compete in the 800-meter event at the World Championships.
However, before being allowed to participate in the race, which she eventually won, the International Association of Athletics Federations underwent multiple rounds of nonconsensual "gender confirmation tests" due to public speculation regarding her eligibility to compete in the women's category, fueled by rumors of her being male.
The now 32-year-old Olympic gold medalist, despite being continuously scrutinized for her body and athletic abilities throughout her career, remains strong and unapologetically herself.
In her new memoir, The Race to Be Myself, the female athlete born with high testosterone levels, says, she always preferred pants over skirts and dresses, and hunting over playing with dolls, “But I’m still a woman.”
She adds, “Growing up, my family and friends just understood I was what the Western world calls a ‘tomboy.’”
AP
But the Western world didn’t receive the runner raised in the South African village Ga-Masehlong the way she thought it would. The middle-distance runner faced intense scrutiny over her gender, casting doubt on her athletic dominance.
In a new interview with CBS Mornings, Semenya makes it clear that despite discrimination, controversy and speculation surrounding her gender, something positive came out of it.
“That’s when I realized, you have the power in you to own yourself, because at the end of the day, even if they define you for who they think you are, you should love yourself,” she explains.
The power she has tapped into shows up on television platforms and in book discussions where she raises issues surrounding “why women—when they do extraordinary things—genetically, they’re being questioned. When women do phenomenally, there’s something wrong about that. But when men do good, they’re from another world. They’re praised,” she notes.
A key moment in Semenya's career occurred when the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) introduced regulations requiring female athletes with higher testosterone levels to take medication to reduce them. The runner turned activist took her fight against these discriminatory regulations to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but ultimately lost her appeal in 2019. While the decision dealt a significant blow to Semenya's career, it did not silence her.
In a statement, World Athletics said, “Throughout this long battle, World Athletics has always maintained that its regulations are lawful and legitimate, and that they represent a fair, necessary and proportionate means of ensuring the rights of all female athletes to participate on fair and equal terms.”
Semenya calls this statement “nonsense,” and elaborates, saying, “You say, ‘sports for all’ and then you start regulating women, but then, after that, you say you want to act in the best interest of women. All women should be protected first. You should put human rights first.”
In spite of her rights being infringed upon and questions about her gender persisting, she says, “I’m a woman. I’m good. I love myself,” adding, “I like how I present myself to the world.”
At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
Watch her full CBS Mornings interview below.