LET’S go to Caster Semenya again.
The South African, twice an Olympic champion and thrice a world champion in the 800-meter for women, has been at odds with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
A while back, the IAAF won a 2-1 vote at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), subjecting Semenya into a procedure to lower her testosterone levels.
Semenya, now 28, has been medically tested to have testosterone almost equal that to male levels.
In an ugly twist, the IAAF, disclosing its Semenya files kept secret for years, said Semenya is “biologically male” and must reduce her natural testosterone to qualify to compete in female competitions.
That hurt Semenya no end.
“It hurts more than I can put in words,” Semenya told Gerald Imray of the Associated Press.
She said she was unable to express how insulted she felt at the IAAF, “telling me that I am not a woman.”
It’s like telling Vice Ganda he isn’t gay?
Said the IAAF: “There are some contexts where biology has to trump identity.”
Semenya was legally born a female and has been identified in all documents as female all her life.
Countered the IAAF: “But there are differences of sex development.” It argued that some female runners have male biological characteristics like male levels of hormone testosterone after puberty that give them an “unfair athletic advantage over other female athletes.”
But last week, Semenya won her appeal against the IAAF as the Switzerland’s supreme court on human-rights temporarily suspended the hormone regulations pending the issuance of a full verdict on her case.
The IAAF’s testosterone reduction procedures, if upheld, would force Semenya to either take a contraceptive pill daily, a monthly shot of hormone-blocking injection or surgery, before she could compete again.
Semenya had taken oral contraceptives in 2010-2015 and it “made me gain weight, constantly feel sick, have regular fevers and internal abdominal pain.”
She said, “I was made a ‘lab rat’ and I will not allow the IAAF to use my body again.”
I second the motion.