South Africa’s Caster Semenya (right) and Romania’s Claudia Bobosia compete in the women’s 800m preliminary at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Athletics at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Martin Meissner/AP)
RIO DE JANEIRO. The Olympic Games are engulfed in a storm of controversy around the favorite of the women’s 800m race, Castor Semenya. The South African did not want to face the ethical and medical dilemmas that women with high testosterone levels face in athletics, and there were deep divisions even among other female athletes.
Semenya walked past reporters without saying a word after comfortably advancing to the 800m semi-finals on Wednesday. There is a lot to be said for its competitors. Some thought the 25-year-old was just another competitor, while others said they’d rather see women in the same situation in different competitions.
Other competitors suspected that Semenya was not the only Rio 800m runner believed to be suffering from hyperandrogenism, a condition that causes abnormally high testosterone levels in women, making the debate even more pressing, especially when Olympic medals are at stake. Testosterone is a strength-enhancing hormone for both men and women, but levels are usually much lower. Until last year, female athletes had a threshold testosterone level. But now that plan has been shelved, leading some runners to claim that androgen-rich women are virtually unbeatable in the 800m.
“I think we need to have separate events for them and for us,” said Natalia Lupu from Ukraine, who also made it to the semi-finals. “You can see it’s easy for them.”
“She’s a woman and she should be allowed to run, just like us,” Selo said of Semenya. “She is not the only woman in the world to serve in this capacity.”
Caster Semenya of South Africa (right), Aggie Wilson of the United States (center), Shelena Oskan-Clark of Great Britain (second from left) and Chunyu Wang of China (left) compete in the women’s 800m preliminary at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 2016 Summer Olympics in track and field. (David J. Phillips/AP)
By all accounts, there are no simple solutions to protect the rights of the Seed and those who oppose it. Some athletes refused to discuss the issue, which became a minefield for the International Association of Athletics Federations as its rules for women with androgen excess did not survive legal action from Indian sprinter Duty Chand. According to the rules, androgenic women who want to compete may have to undergo surgery or take medication to bring their testosterone levels below the threshold set by the IAAF.
Last year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended rules allowing women with androgen excess to run in Rio without treatment. After the decision, Semenya’s life improved.
“This is a very special situation and, as far as I know, almost unheard of in the sporting world,” said Luxembourg runner Charlene Matias, who did not reach the semi-finals. “I don’t know how to stop her from running. There has to be a way. Of course she has certain strengths. But even with those strengths, she has to work hard. She trains. She suffers. She works hard to get here.
Semenya received unwanted attention after news was leaked in 2009 when track and field officials asked her to take a gender test shortly before she won the 800m world title at the age of 19. IAAF rules were introduced in 2011 and she was suspended for 11 months. She returned for the 2012 London Olympics with a time of 1:57.23 and won the silver medal. Her best time of the season was almost two seconds faster.
Semenya has never spoken publicly about her condition in detail. Her default position is usually to just talk about her run. The same thing happened on Wednesday when she ran 1:59.31 and won the heats. She did not speak to reporters, but the team released the audio file.
“I’m just focused on enjoying my championship,” Semenya said. “In the championship, time does not matter, but the goal is a medal, gold, silver or bronze.”
“First, I try to feel my body in order to feel comfortable,” she says. “I’m trying to get into the top two of the last 200 to win and then safely reach the semi-finals.”
”It’s a bit unfair,” said Wang Chunyu of China, who trailed Semenya in a personal best but failed to finish fourth.
“But everyone says that (her condition) is natural, and it is even more unfair not to allow her to compete,” she said.
“If anything, she probably helped a lot of us run a lot faster than usual this year,” said Justine Fédronique of France, who also didn’t qualify.
“When you face someone like that, you know it’s going to be a completely different game,” she added. “I sympathize with her. She probably hasn’t known this for most of her life, she just wants to train and race like the rest of us, so it’s definitely not fair to her, but it’s not fair to anyone else. So I don’t know what the solution is. There is definitely no clear cut solution.”
She and the other members say they are concerned that if rules restricting what they consider to be dominance are not reintroduced, more androgenic women will follow Semenya’s lead and become dominant. In a 2015 ruling, the CAS did not completely eliminate this rule, giving the IAAF until July 2017 to provide evidence that hyperandrogenic women have a significant advantage.
“We didn’t treat them very well because we saw that they had a different energy than us,” said Halima Nakaayi of Uganda, who reached the semi-finals with a personal best of 1:59.78. “Hopefully they will form their own (own) categories because there will be more and more of them.”
Post time: Jul-22-2023