World-renowned 800m champion Caster Semenya has urged young athletes to speak out and speak up if they want to prosper in international sport.
The 32-year-old athlete made the plea at the launch of her book, The Race To Be Myself, at Stellenbosch University yesterday.
Semenya became a household name after winning two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships, along with dozens of World Athletics (WA) meets.
However, her meteoric rise to fame was marred by ugly insinuations about her sex, and whether she should be allowed to compete in women’s sport.
But now Semenya is finally telling her own truth.
The special book launch was the first of several discussions Semenya plans to have with fans. The book takes readers behind the scenes into the coming of age of the iconic runner and how her journey has taken her to the pinnacle of the sport.
Caster writes: “I have waited a long time to tell my story. For more than a decade I have preferred to let my running do the talking. After what has happened to me, it felt easier that way,”
Despite her amazing successes, or perhaps because of it, in 2019 Semenya was barred from competing in her favourite event, the 800m sprint, after WA took issue with her high levels of testosterone.
Caster says: “On the outside, I am a female, I have a vagina but I do not have a uterus. I do not menstruate and my body produces an elevated amount of testosterone.”
Caster has a condition called Difference in Sex Development (DSD), an umbrella term that refers to the varying genetic conditions where an embryo responds in a different way to hormones.
She explains: “I am a tall, dark-skinned, African woman with well-defined muscles, a deep voice and not a lot on top breasts.”
In the book, she also speaks about the setback she faced when she was requested to take hormone-altering drugs to compete on the track again.
She also touches on when she challenged the sports bosses over their decision to restrict testosterone levels in DSD runners and how she won her discrimination case in the European Court of Human Rights in July.
Present at the book signing was Wilfred Daniels, a former national athletics coach, who only had praise for Caster, saying: “Amongst all the chaos that went on around her, she was focused on the task at hand, winning gold for your country.
“That will always stand out for the strong personality that she has.”
A bleak Semenya told the Daily Voice that as long as “old people” make decisions, the future of competitive athletics hangs in the balance, saying: “The future of the sport is something that we can’t see, I do not see any future. I just see them destroying everything.”