Caster Semenya, the Story of a Hero

In 2009, Caster Semenya bagged the gold medal in the world championships (800m race) by

beating her best time by four seconds. The South African Athlete was subjected to gender

testing and thorough scrutiny. She has thrice the level of testosterone compared to other woman

due to hyperandrogenism. She identifies herself as a woman but some would label her as

intersex. The term “intersex” is used to describe variations in sex characteristics including

chromosomes, gonads and sex hormones. In sports, the issue arises when the athlete has to

compete in an event limited to a single sex. A lot of complicated issues have risen in main

sporting tournaments where men have attempted to compete as women and in this case, a

woman with high testosterone level competing in an all-woman category.

Over the years, athletes have been subjected to various tests to verify their eligibility, ranging

from physical examinations for drug use to chromosome testing. After Semenya won her gold

medal, hormone testing was introduced by the International Association of Athletics

Federations (IAAF). They came up with new rules and regulations and banned her for over a

year where investigations started regarding her unusually high testosterone levels. In April,

2011, they set an upper limit for the levels of testosterone in a female athlete which is 10 Nano

moles per litre. Any athlete with a higher testosterone level was supposed to take drugs to

reduce the level. They claimed that high testosterone gives her an unfair advantage by having

more muscle, strength and mass. Who are we to invade somebody’s privacy and shun them

publicly for something that is not their fault?

Semenya having high testosterone levels is something she was born with. The IAAF were

discriminatory against women, no rule exists where men athletes have to undergo tests to prove

that they are “male” enough to compete in the men’s category. Nobody is allowed to decide

your gender and bar you from sports. This took a toll on her mental and physical health but the

IAAF still were extremely stringent with their rules. She suffered constant abdominal pain and

fever, her immunity had gone down drastically. Woman have fought so hard over the years to

find a place in the field of sports and can’t be a threatened by the success of a faster competitor.

In basketball, the tallest player is 7 foot-7 inches tall, does he have a competitive advantage

over his opponents? If yes, why is he not being persecuted? Questions being raised are “why

single out hyperandrogenism as the only variation that confers advantage in sports?” Many

elite athletes are genetic outliers including Michael Phelps and Simone Biles. The rule is less

about promoting fairness than about bringing about a prescribed standard of femininity. If

Semenya looked more conventionally feminine, her case might have gone unnoticed.She

accused the IAAF of using her body “as a human guinea pig experiment”. The medication put

her in a miserable condition, mentally and physically. Athletes should not be put through such

mental trauma and endure racism, sexism and homophobia.

The issue IAAF had was that Semenya had an unfair advantage over the other athletes which

could also be due to doping. Most females have testosterone levels of 1.79 nmol/L whereas

Semenya has a level of 10 nmol/L which is huge gap. Everyone has separate biological

advantages but are similar in nature therefore not giving an upper hand to any athlete. In

running, to compete against a person with a really high testosterone level is difficult. The reason

why men and woman do not compete against each other is because they are biologically

different, men are physically stronger and more powerful compared to woman. This is the main

reason why this topic is of paramount importance. The tests were also taken to check for drug

use for an increase in testosterone level. There’s no definite proof yet which shows that high

testosterone outranks all other biological advantages. Even with high testosterone level, these

female athletes do not get performance benefits from the hormone because their body does not

convert the hormone to a completely active form. Forcing females to undergo medical

treatment as a condition of participation constitutes a breach on human rights.

If Semenya was born as a woman, pees as a woman, then why is she not considered a woman

while running? It’s always been a task for females to gain popularity in sports, but slowly they

are marking their territory. Instead of scrutinizing everything they do and are, why not celebrate

their biological differences? Discrimination against woman, hiding under the veil of fairness

and concern, is something to be shameful about. It’s the 21st century, it’s high time we be more

open minded and accepting. Semenya, who was put through this bounced back even stronger

and went on to win the gold medal in 2016 Olympics. This has been said a million times and

what’s the harm in reading it once more, every individual has equal human rights and cannot

be discriminated on the basis of sex, creed and race.