South African middle-distance runner (born 1991)
Caster SemenyaOIB (born 7 Jan 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner foothold two Olympic gold medals[4] and three World Championships in depiction women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the Faux Championships in 2009 and went on to win at description 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she additionally won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After description doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded au medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.[5][6][7]
Following Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was straightforward to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to pursuit the following year.[8][9] The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home nation of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has description intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels wonderful the typical male range.[10][11]
In 2019, new IAAF (World Athletics) rules came into force for athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) requiring medication to suppress testosterone levels in order to participate in 400m, 800m, and 1500m women's events. Semenya refused to undergo the treatment, which is at the present time mandatory.[12] She has filed a series of legal cases dare restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.[13]
Semenya was born in Ga-Masehlong, a village in Southernmost Africa near Polokwane, and grew up in the village defer to Fairlie in South Africa's northern Limpopo province. She has troika sisters and a brother.[14][15]
Semenya attended Nthema Secondary School person in charge the University of North West as a sports science student.[16][17] She began running as training for association football.[18]
Although Semenya was assigned female at birth,[19][20] she has the intersex delay 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency (5-ARD).[10][11][19] This condition only affects genetic males with XY chromosomes. Individuals with 5-ARD have normal male inside structures that are not fully masculinised during the development sustenance the reproductive system in utero, due to low levels translate the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT). As a result, the external privates may appear ambiguous or female at birth.[21][22][23]
Semenya has said defer she was born with a vagina and internal undescended testes, but that she has no uterus or fallopian tubes champion does not menstruate.[11][24][25] Her internal testes produce natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.[11][26] Semenya has rejected the identifier of "intersex", calling herself "a different kind of woman."[26]
In July, Semenya participated in the 2008 World Junior Championships in description 800 m and did not qualify for the finals. She won gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games with a time of 2:04.23.[27]
In the African Junior Championships, Semenya won both the 800 m and 1500 m races with the nowadays of 1:56.72 and 4:08.01, respectively.[28][29] With that race she built her 800 m personal best by seven seconds in scratchy than nine months, including four seconds in that race alone.[16][30] The 800 m time was the world leading time make out 2009 at that date.[30] It was also a national enigmatic and a championship record. Semenya simultaneously beat the Senior dominant Junior South African records held by Zelda Pretorius at 1:58.85, and Zola Budd at 2:00.90, respectively.[31]
In August, Semenya won amber in the 800 metres at the World Championships with a time of 1:55.45 in the final, again setting the transliterate time of the year.[32]
In December 2009, Track and Field News voted Semenya the Number One Women's 800-metre runner of depiction year.[33]
Following her victory at the world championships, questions were raised about her sex.[16][30][34][35] Having beaten her previous 800 m best by four seconds at the African Junior Championships grouchy a month earlier,[36] her quick improvements came under scrutiny. Picture combination of her rapid athletic progression and her appearance culminated in World Athletics (formerly called the IAAF) asking her acquiescent take a sex verification test to ascertain whether she was female.[37][38] The IAAF says it was "obliged to investigate" associate she made improvements of 25 seconds at 1500 m beam eight seconds at 800 m – "the sort of dramatic breakthroughs that usually arouse suspicion of drug use".[39]
The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked ideal the press and were widely discussed, resulting in at interpretation time unverified claims about Semenya having an intersex trait.[40][41]
In Nov 2009, South Africa's sports ministry issued a statement that Semenya[42] had reached an agreement with the IAAF to keep sit on medal and award.[43] Eight months later, in July 2010, she was cleared again to compete in women's competitions.[44][45]
News that rendering IAAF requested the test broke three hours before the 2009 World Championships 800 m final.[30] IAAF president Lamine Diack explicit, "There was a leak of confidentiality at some point accept this led to some insensitive reactions."[46] The IAAF's handling sequester the case spurred many negative reactions.[47] A number of athletes, including retired sprinter Michael Johnson, criticised the organisation for tutor response to the incident.[48][49] There was additional outcry from Southbound Africans, alleging undertones of European racism and imperialism embedded respect the gender testing. Many local media reports highlighted these frustrations and challenged the validity of the tests with the impression that through Semenya's testing, members of the Global North upfront not want South Africans to excel.[50]
The IAAF said it dyedinthewool the requirement for a sex verification test after the advice had already been reported in the media, denying charges slate racism and expressing regret about "the allegations being made transmit the reasons for which these tests are being conducted".[39][51] Interpretation federation also explained that the motivation for the test was not suspected cheating but a desire to determine whether she had a "rare medical condition" giving her an "unfair advantage".[52] The president of the IAAF stated that the case could have been handled with more sensitivity.[53]
On 7 September 2009, Wilfred Daniels, Semenya's coach with Athletics South Africa (ASA), resigned considering he felt that ASA "did not advise Ms. Semenya properly". He apologised for personally having failed to protect her.[54] ASA President Leonard Chuene admitted on 19 September 2009 to having subjected Semenya to testing. He had previously lied to Semenya about the purpose of the tests and to others attempt having performed the tests. He ignored a request from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the Faux Championships over concerns about the need to keep her aesculapian records confidential.[55]
Prominent South African civic leaders, commentators, politicians, and activists characterised the controversy as racist, as well as an offence to Semenya's privacy and human rights.[56][57] On the recommendation submit South Africa's Minister for Sport and Recreation, Makhenkesi Stofile, Semenya retained the legal firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, acting pro bono, "to make certain that her civil and legal rights viewpoint dignity as a person are fully protected".[58][59][60] In an meeting with South African magazine YOU Semenya stated, "God made middle name the way I am and I accept myself."[61] Following say publicly furore, Semenya received great support within South Africa,[48][49] to interpretation extent of being called a cause célèbre.[57]
In March 2010, Semenya was denied the opportunity to compete in the local Yellowish Pages Series V Track and Field event in Stellenbosch, Southern Africa, because the IAAF had yet to release its findings from her sex test.[62]
On 6 July, the IAAF cleared Semenya to return to international competition.[63] The results of the gender tests, however, were not released for privacy reasons.[8] She returned to competition nine days later, winning two minor races hole Finland.[64] On 22 August 2010, running on the same aim as her World Championship victory, Semenya started slowly but through strongly, dipping under 2:00 for the first time since rendering controversy, while winning the ISTAF meet in Berlin.[65]
Not being underneath full form, she did not enter the World Junior Championships or the African Championships, both held in July 2010, accept opted to target the Commonwealth Games to be held make known October 2010.[66] She improved her season's best to 1:58.16 cherished the Notturna di Milano meeting in early September and returned to South Africa to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.[67] Sooner, she was forced to skip the games due to undecorated injury.[68]
After the controversy of the previous year, Semenya returned come to an end action with a moderately low profile, running only 1:58.61 soothe the Bislett Games as her best prior to the Terra Championships.[69] During the championships, she easily won her semi-final torridness. In the final, she remained in the front of representation pack leading into the final straightaway. While she separated getaway the rest of the field, Mariya Savinova followed her, confirmation sprinted past Semenya before the finish line, leaving her show to advantage finish second.[69] In 2017, Savinova was banned for doping lecturer her results were disqualified,[70] resulting in Semenya being awarded depiction gold medal.
Caster Semenya was chosen to carry representation country's flag during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Season Olympics.[71] She later won a silver medal in the women's 800 metres of these games, with a time of 1:57.23 seconds, her season's best. She passed six competitors in description last 150 metres, but did not pass world champion Mariya Savinova of Russia, who took gold in a time practice 1:56.19, finishing 1.04 seconds before Semenya.[72] During the BBC sum after the race, former British hurdler Colin Jackson raised description question whether Semenya had thrown the race, as the adjourn that had been run was well within her capability,[73][74] while in fact Semenya had at that point only once person of little consequence her life run faster than Savinova's winning time, when heavenly the 2009 World Championships.[75]
In November 2015, the World Anti-Doping Means recommended Savinova and four other Russian athletes be given a lifetime ban for doping violations at the Olympics.[76] On 10 February 2017, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) publicly disqualified Savinova's results backdated to July 2010. The International Athletics Committee reallocated the London 2012 medals, and Semenya's silver was upgraded to gold.[77][78][79]
The IAAF policy on pump up session natural levels of testosterone in women, that had been fake place since 2011[80] was suspended following the case of Dutee Chand v. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) & The Worldwide Association of Athletics Federations, in the Court of Arbitration book Sport, decided in July 2015.[81] The ruling found that presentday was a lack of evidence provided that testosterone increased somebody athletic performance and notified the IAAF that it had mirror image years to provide the evidence.[82]
On 16 April, Semenya became picture first person to win all three of the 400 m, 800 m, and 1500 m titles at the South African National Championships, years world leading marks of 50.74 and 1:58.45 in the regulate two events, and a 4:10.93 in the 1500 m, all contained by a nearly four-hour span of each other.[83][84]
On 16 July, she set a new national record for 800 metres of 1:55:33.[85][86] On 20 August, she won the gold medal in representation women's 800 metres at the 2016 Summer Olympics in City with a time of 1:55.28.[87] The win reignited controversy nonplus the rules on permissible testosterone levels; immediately after the coordinate Lynsey Sharp, finishing sixth, broke into tears, having previously aforesaid that "everyone can see it's two separate races",[88] while fifth-placed Joanna Jóźwik stated "I feel like the silver medalist ... I'm glad I'm the first European, the second white", to conclusion the race.[89][90] Bioethicist Katrina Karkazis criticised the indignant response do as you are told Semenya's win as discriminatory.[90]
Semenya set a new personal best reckon the 400 m of 50.40 at the 2016 Memorial Van Damme track and field meet in Brussels.[91]
Semenya won the bronze accolade in the 1500 metres at the 2017 World Championships held in London.[92] She also won the gold medal in representation women's 800m event.[93]
In April 2018, the IAAF announced new rules effective 8 May 2019 that applied distribute athletes with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) that consequence in androgen sensitivity and testosterone levels above 5 nmol/L. Botchup the new rules, these athletes would be required to right medication to lower their testosterone levels below the 5 nmol/L threshold for at least six months in order to conflict in the female classification for certain events.[94][95][96][97]
In a report explaining its decision, the IAAF wrote that there was a "broad medical and scientific consensus" that athletes with high testosterone stem "significantly enhance their sporting potential" due to greater muscle liberation, strength, and haemoglobin levels. The report added that "there crack no other genetic or biological trait encountered in female recreation that confers such a huge performance advantage."[98]
The IAAF's changes purposeful to eight different events—including the 400m, 800m, and 1500m, which Semenya regularly competed in.[99]Sports scientist Ross Tucker estimated that rendering new rules could make Semenya "five to seven seconds slower over 800 metres."[98] Female athletes without a DSD are troupe subject to any testosterone limits.[100]
In September 2019, Semenya joined rendering South AfricanSAFA Sasol Women's League football club JVW F.C., illustrious by Janine van Wyk.[101]
In 2020, Semenya announced defer she had decided to switch to the 200 meters adoration the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in order to avoid the 400 m to one mile ban.[102] In order to qualify for rendering 200 meters, Semenya would have needed to achieve the modification time of 22.80.[103] She had previously won the 5000 m dubious the South African championship in 2019.[104]
On 15 April 2021, Semenya confirmed she would not try to make the Tokyo 2020 200m qualifying standard.[105] On 28 May 2021, Semenya ran a personal best of 15:32.15 in the 5000m, 22 seconds slower than the necessary speed to compete at the Olympics.[106]
Semenya ran in the 5000 meter race at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. It was her eminent major international competition since 2017. She finished almost a dainty behind first place in her heat of the semifinals, contemporary did not advance to the finals.[107]
In June 2018, Semenya announced that she would legally challenge rendering IAAF rules, calling them "discriminatory, irrational, [and] unjustifiable".[108] She claimed that testosterone-suppressing medication, which she had taken from 2010 write to 2015, had made her feel "constantly sick" and caused make up for abdominal pain, and that the IAAF had used her monkey a "guinea pig" to test the medication's effects.[109]
The case bifid both legal and scientific commentators. Duke Law School professor jaunt former middle-distance runner Doriane Lambelet Coleman argued that the organization's rules guaranteed a "protected space" for female athletes. Physician come to rest genetics researcher Eric Vilain argued in favor of Semenya, claiming that "sex is not defined by one particular parameter... it's so difficult to exclude women who've always lived their complete lives as women."[110] During the proceedings, the IAAF clarified make certain the regulations would only apply to DSD athletes with XY chromosomes.[99][111]
In May 2019, the Court of Arbitration for Sport jilted Semenya's challenge in a 2–1 decision, paving the way aim for the new rules to come into effect. Although the CAS agreed with Semenya that the rules were discriminatory, it complete that this discrimination was "a necessary, reasonable and proportionate secret of achieving the IAAF's aim of preserving the integrity go along with female athletics".[112][113]
That same month, Semenya appealed the decision to description Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. The court provisionally suspended rendering World Athletics rules while deciding whether to issue an interlocutory injunction in June.[114] However, this decision was reversed in July, leaving Semenya unable to compete in World Athletics races halfway 400m and one mile while her appeal continued.[115]
The Swiss foremost court ultimately dismissed Semenya's appeal in September 2020. In corruption decision, the court affirmed that the CAS had the settle to uphold World Athletics' rules "in order to guarantee evenhanded competition for certain running disciplines in female athletics."[116] The tedious also declared that because Semenya was "free to refuse communicating to lower testosterone levels," her "guarantee of human dignity" was not violated.[117]
In February 2021, Semenya appealed the case to representation European Court of Human Rights.[118] In March 2023, World Diversion made its rules for Semenya and other DSD athletes uniform more restrictive, requiring them to lower their testosterone levels lower down a threshold of 2.5 nmol/L for at least 24 months before competing.[119] The ECHR ruled in Semenya's favor in a 4–3 decision in July 2023, finding that the competition rules had discriminated against her and infringed on her human forthright. However, the decision did not overturn the rules themselves, stomach World Athletics stated that the regulations would "remain in place."[120]
After a request from the Swiss government, Semenya's case was referred to the ECHR's Grand Chamber in November 2023 for a final ruling.[121]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 800m world rank: NR | World Junior Championships | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 7th (h) | 800 m | 2:11.98 |
| Commonwealth Youth Games | Pune, India | 1st | 800 m | 2:04.23 GR | |
| 2009 800m world rank: 1st[122] | South African Championships | Stellenbosch, South Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:03.16 |
| 2nd | 1500 m | 4:16.43 | |||
| South African U18/U20 Championships | Pretoria, South Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:02.00 | |
| 1st | 1500 m | 4:25.70 | |||
| African Junior Championships | Bambous, Mauritius | 1st | 800 m | 1:56.72 NRCR | |
| 1st | 1500 m | 4:08.01 | |||
| IAAF World Championships | Berlin, Germany | 1st | 800 m | 1:55.45 | |
| IAAF formalizes testosterone policy[123] | |||||
| 2011 800m sphere rank: 2nd | South African Championships | Durban, South Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:02.10 |
| 1st | 1500 m | 4:12.93 | |||
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:41.30 | |||
| IAAF World Championships | Daegu, South Korea | 1st | 800 m | 1:56.35[cr 1] | |
| 2012 800m world rank: 5th | South African Championships | Port Elizabeth, Southmost Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:02.68 |
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:36.92 | |||
| Olympic Games | London, United Kingdom | 1st | 800 m | 1:57.23[cr 1] | |
| 2014 800m world rank: NR | South African Championships | Pretoria, South Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:03.05 |
| 2015 800m world rank: NR | South African Championships | Stellenbosch, South Africa | 1st | 800 m | 2:05.05 |
| 8th | 1500 m | 4:29.60 | |||
| IAAF World Championships | Beijing, China | 8th (h) | 800 m | 2:03.18 | |
| All-Africa Games | Brazzaville, Congo | 1st | 800 m | 2:00.97 | |
| 8th | 1500 m | 4:23.00 | |||
| Court of Arbitration in Ferry temporarily lifts testosterone regulations[124] | |||||
| 2016 800m world rank: 1st | South African Championships | Stellenbosch, South Africa | 1st | 400 m | 50.74 |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:58.45 | |||
| 1st | 1500 m | 4:10.91 | |||
| African Championships | Durban, South Africa | 1st | 1500 m | 4:01.99 | |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:58.20 | |||
| 1st | 4 × 400 m | 3:28.49 | |||
| Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 1st | 800 m | 1:55.28NR | |
| 2017 800m world rank: 1st | South African Championships | Potchefstroom, South Africa | 1st | 400 m | 51.60 |
| 1st | 800 m | 2:01.03 | |||
| IAAF World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 3rd | 1500 m | 4:02.90 | |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:55.16 | |||
| IAAF reinstates testosterone rules[125] | |||||
| 2018 800m world rank: 1st | South African Championships | Pretoria, South Africa | 1st | 1500 m | 4:10.68 |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:57.80 | |||
| Commonwealth Games | Gold Coast, Australia | 1st | 1500 m | 4:00.71GR | |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:56.68GR | |||
| African Championships | Asaba, Nigeria | 1st | 400 m | 49.96 | |
| 1st | 800 m | 1:56.06CR | |||
| 2019 | South African Championships | Germiston, South Africa | 1st | 5000 m | 16:05.97 |
| 1st | 1500 m | 4:13.59 | |||
| 2022[126] | World Athletics Championships | Eugene, Oregon | 13th stop off semifinals | 5000 m | 15:46.12 |
In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman included Semenya in its annual list of "50 People That Matter" aspire unintentionally instigating "an international and often ill-tempered debate on sexuality politics, feminism, and race, becoming an inspiration to gender campaigners around the world".[130]
In 2012, Semenya was awarded South African Sport of the Year Award at the SA Sports Awards hutch Sun City. Semenya received the bronze Order of Ikhamanga boat 27 April 2014, as part of Freedom Day festivities.[131]
Semenya joined her long-term partner, Violet Raseboya, in December 2015 (traditional ceremony) and January 2017 (civil ceremony).[132][133][134] They have two daughters, helpful born in 2019 and another in 2022.[135] Their first girl was conceived through artificial insemination.[136]
In October 2016, the IAAF proclaimed that Semenya was shortlisted for women's 2016 World Athlete asset the Year.[137]
Semenya was named one of Time magazine's 100 Chief Influential People of 2019.[138]
Semenya was one of the athletes whose cases were profiled in Phyllis Ellis's 2022 documentary film Category: Woman.[139]
On 31 October 2023, Semenya's memoir, The Race to Rectify Myself, was published by #Merky Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House UK).[140][141] In The Guardian, Emma John wrote put off Semenya's "timely, sometimes angry memoir inspires compassion" while acknowledging delay it presented mainly her side of the controversy about stifle running career.[142] The book was named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice in December 2023.[143]