SA sprinter Caster Semenya brushes aside gender storm and says her focus is on winning gold at Rio Games
Sprinter Caster Semenya was forced to undergo medical tests and barred from the track for nearly a year in 2009. Pic/Getty Images
Johannesburg: South Africa's Caster Semenya is back and vowing to win an Olympic gold that could reignite the biological and ethical gender storm that engulfed her life.
Sprinter Caster Semenya was forced to undergo medical tests and barred from the track for nearly a year in 2009. Pic/Getty Images
The athlete, who was at the centre of a bitter dispute over gender testing seven years ago, is favourite to win the women's 800m in Rio next month. Semenya shot to international stardom in 2009 when she won the 800m at the World Championships in Berlin.
But her victory triggered controversy when rivals questioned her gender.
Forced medical tests
She was forced to undergo medical tests and barred from the track for nearly a year, before returning to win silver at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 London Olympics.
Her career appeared to be sharp decline, when she failed to qualify for the world championship last year.
But now the 25-year-old, is in the best form of her life, and confidently brushing off the past track disputes.
"I don't have time for that," she said when asked about the gender issue.
"I am an athlete and I focus more on the issues that concern me: training, perform, eat, sleep. So that thing — you know, it's not part of me."
Semenya's case triggered a debate in sport over hyperandrogenism, a condition involving overproduction of male sex hormones.
Last year, regulations were suspended that required women athletes to take testosterone-lowering medication if their levels were above a legal mark.
The ruling ended much of the uncertainty over Semenya's right to run.
Semenya said she drew inspiration from former South African president Nelson Mandela, who stood by her during the 2009 scandal, when she endured what she described as "invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being."
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