Caster Semenya

Caster Semenya
Caster Semenya 2018
Full name	Mokgadi Caster Semenya
nation	South Africa
birthday	7th January 1991 (age 29)
place of birth	Pietersburg ,  South Africa
size	178 cm
Weight	73 kg
Career
discipline	800 m
Best performance	1: 54.25 min
Trainer	Maria de Lurdes Mutola
status	active
Medal table
Olympic games 2 × 0 × 0 × World championships 3 × 0 × 1 × Africa Games 1 × 0 × 0 × African Championships 5 × 0 × 0 × Commonwealth Games 2 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games gold 2012 London 800 m gold 2016 Rio de Janeiro 800 m  World championships gold 2009 Berlin 800 m gold 2011 Daegu 800 m bronze 2017 London 1500 m gold 2017 London 800 m  Africa Games gold 2015 Brazzaville 800 m  African Championships gold 2016 Durban 800 m gold 2016 Durban 1500 m gold 2016 Durban 4 × 400 m gold 2018 Asaba 400 m gold 2018 Asaba 800 m  Commonwealth Games gold 2018 Gold Coast 800 m gold 2018 Gold Coast 1500 m
last change: December 15, 2019

Mokgadi Caster Semenya (born January 7, 1991 in Pietersburg ) is a South African middle-distance runner and multiple Olympic champion as well as world champion in the 800-meter run . For the 2020 season, she has signed a contract as a soccer player with JVW Girls .

Career and hermaphroditism debate

Semenya was born in the village of Ga-Masehlong near Pietersburg, today's Polokwane, and studied sports science at the University of Pretoria from 2009 .

At the Junior World Championships in 2008 in Bydgoszcz , she was eliminated in the 800-meter run with a time of 2: 11.98 min in the preliminary round. In July of the following year, she surprisingly set an interim world annual best with 1: 56.72 min.

At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin , she won the gold medal in the 800 meter run. In a personal best of 1: 55.45 minutes, she distanced the Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei and the British Jennifer Meadows by more than two seconds in the following places.

In the run-up to the World Cup, rumors circulated that Semenya might be intersex . The unusual increase in performance within just one year, the deep voice and the masculine appearance were cited as indicators. The IAAF athletics federation rejected a start ban because, according to a spokeswoman, “no evidence” was available. After their clear victory in Berlin, however, the association responded to the increasing doubts and ordered a test to check the sex of Semenya. The decision was received with outrage in South Africa and the tests were also criticized by human rights activists.

IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss told the press: "It is clear that she is a woman, but maybe not 100 percent." Otherwise, the IAAF refrained from commenting on press reports about alleged hermaphroditism . Shortly afterwards it became known that the South African Athletics Association (ASA) had already ordered a sex test at Semenya before the World Championships to check the eligibility for women's races. As a result, association president Leonard Chuene came under fire, who, together with politicians, had always denied tests and criticized the IAAF for handling the Semenya case.

At the beginning of November 2009, Leonard Chuene and its executive committee were suspended by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) after his association had previously apologized for the wrongdoing in the case of the 800-meter world champion. Two weeks later, the South African Ministry of Sports announced that Semenya could keep the gold medal and the prize money. The medical examinations continued to be treated confidentially.

On July 6, 2010, the IAAF announced that Semenya can start again with the women with immediate effect. In the wake of the controversy sparked by the Semenya case, in June 2012 the International Olympic Committee amended the guidelines on female hyperandrogenism applicable to the London Olympics . According to this, female athletes who are suspected of having a competitive advantage over other women due to the presence of an androgen value that is typical for men must undergo androgen-lowering treatment if they want to continue to take part in competitions among women. In May 2011 the IAAF had already introduced corresponding rules.

In 2011 Semenya had to admit defeat only to Russian Marija Savinova at the World Championships in Daegu over 800 meters and won the silver medal with a time of 1: 56.35 minutes. From November 2011 she was trained by the Mozambican Olympic and multiple world champion Maria de Lurdes Mutola . At the Olympic Games in London in 2012 , Semenya finished second after Savinova with 1: 57.23 min. However, Savinova was disqualified for doping in 2015, so Semenya was awarded the gold medals of the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games.

Semenya could not qualify for participation in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow because she missed the required standard time after surviving a protracted knee injury.

In 2015, the rules on androgen treatment were repealed by the International Court of Justice and the IAAF was given two years to prove medical necessity. Since then, athletes with increased testosterone levels have been allowed to take part in competitions again without treatment, which at Semenya went hand in hand with a significantly increased performance: After failing the last of her semifinals at the 2015 World Championships in the 800-meter run, she increased her best time in the previous year (1: 59.59 min) at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro as the winner with a personal best and a national record by more than four seconds to 1: 55.28 min, a time that had not been achieved in about ten years.

At the World Championships 2017 in London Semenya defended her title in the 800-meter run successfully. She also won the bronze medal in the 1,500-meter run behind Faith Kipyegon from Kenya and Jennifer Simpson from the United States. On August 27, 2017, two weeks after the World Championships, she set a new world record at the ISTAF in Berlin over the non-Olympic distance of 600 meters with 1: 21.77 minutes.

In 2018, Semenya won both the 800 meters and the 1500 meters at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast . At the Meeting de Paris, she increased her 800-meter best to 1: 54.25 min and thus placed fourth on the all-time world best list. In the 400-meter run of the African Championships in Asaba , she stayed below the 50-second mark for the first time with her winning time of 49.96 s. Two days later she also triumphed in the 800-meter run and undercut the 25-year-old championship record of her trainer Maria de Lurdes Mutola by two tenths of a second in 1: 56.06 min.

At the end of April 2019, Semenya won the South African Championships over 5000 meters.

On May 1, 2019, the International Court of Sport (CAS) announced its decision on the IAAF's new regulation on the testosterone upper limit of five nmol / l for women in races between 400 meters and one mile, which force runners with a 46, XY chromosome set is supposed to lower her testosterone levels with medication six months before international competitions. He confirmed with 2: 1 votes the view of the plaintiffs (consisting of Semenya and the South African Athletics Association ASA) that there was discrimination, but this was necessary, appropriate and proportionate to protect the integrity of women's athletics. However, it was also warned that the fairness of the implementation of the ordinances had to be constantly observed and that these had to be adjusted if necessary. Possible side effects of hormone treatment could lead to a different judgment in the future. For the distances of 1,500 meters and one mile, the CAS also found the evidence of a performance advantage to be low and recommended that the rule be suspended. At the end of July 2019, the provisional suspension of the rule was lifted by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.

After the last judgment in 2015 on the previous IAAF regulation, which still contained a limit value of 10 nmol / l, the world association was given the opportunity to present scientific findings that could support such a regulation. In the opinion of the CAS, it could not be determined at that time that hyperandrogenic female athletes have a significant performance advantage that justifies their exclusion from women's competitions. This was followed by studies and investigations by both sides that were intended to prove or invalidate the performance advantage over certain distances.

Private

In January 2017, Semenya married her partner Violet Raseboya after the couple had said yes in a traditional ceremony in December 2015.

Top performances

• 400 m : 49.62 s, September 8, 2018, Ostrava
• 600 m: 1: 21.77 min, August 27, 2017, Berlin
• 800 m : 1: 54.25 min, June 30, 2018, Paris
• 1000 m : 2: 30.70 min, September 2, 2018, Berlin
• 1500 m : 3: 59.92 min, May 4, 2018, Doha

Awards

In 2014 Semenya was awarded the South African Order of Ikhamanga in bronze.

See also

• Intersexuality in sport (gender differences)
• List of intersex athletes

Web links

Commons : Caster Semenya  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Caster Semenya in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Thomas Hummel: Gender test in sport - difficult separation of man and woman . Background article from in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 16, 2011 (with chronology of the Caster Semenya case )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Profile ( memento from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at bbc.co.uk (English; archive version)
2. ^ Semenya signs for South African football team. ESPN Africa, September 6, 2019.
3. ↑ Caster Semenya row: 'Who are white people to question the makeup of an African girl? It is racism '. In: The Guardian . August 23, 2009, accessed May 8, 2015
4. ↑ Jan Reschke: Gender test at the World Athletics Championships: XY unsolved. In: Spiegel Online . August 20, 2008
5. ↑ Sex test at Semenya: South Africa wants to switch on the UN. In: Spiegel Online. August 21, 2009
6. ↑ Oliver Tolmein : XY: Gender cannot be tested. In: Friday . August 26, 2009
7. ↑ World association wants certainty about Semenya. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 10, 2009
8. ↑ Jens Hungermann, Christian Putsch: World Champion Semenya should be a hybrid. In: The world . September 11, 2009
9. ↑ Michael Rensch: Caster Semenya: Abused for gold. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 20, 2009
10. ↑ Semenya sex scandal: Association apologizes, president fired. ( Memento from November 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Rheinische Post . November 5, 2009
11. ↑ Semenya is allowed to keep the 800m World Championship gold. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. November 19, 2009
12. ^ Caster Semenya may compete. In: IAAF.org . July 6, 2010
13. ↑ International Olympic Committee: IOC Regulations on Female Hyperandrogenism (PDF; 73 kB). June 22, 2012, accessed August 26, 2013
14. ↑ Anja Herrlitz: IAAF sets gender rule. In: Athletics. April 12, 2011, accessed August 26, 2013
15. ^ Amended IAAF Rules and new & updated IAAF Regulations - In Force as of 1 May 2011. In: IAAF.org. May 1, 2011, accessed on August 26, 2013 (English / French)
16. ↑ Lukas Brems: Caster Semenya: It's about more than testosterone In: Zeit-Online, October 23, 2018, accessed on October 29, 2018
17. ↑ Trainer Mutola: Semenya will run a world record. In: Free Press. April 5, 2012, accessed December 16, 2012
18. ↑ Athletics: Semenya missed the World Cup norm. In: Spiegel Online. July 28, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013
19. ↑ Caster not in provisional SA team. In: IOL. July 19, 2013, accessed August 26, 2013
20. ↑ Dutee Chand addresses testosterone in women. medmix.at, accessed on August 21, 2016
21. ↑ ^{a b} runner Caster Semenya - "When I pee, I pee like a woman" on faz.net, August 7, 2017, accessed August 8, 2017
22. ↑ CAS decision on Caster Semenya - When is a woman a woman? (May 1, 2019)
23. ↑ Mike Rowbottom: Semenya's 1: 54.25 one of seven world leads in Paris - IAAF Diamond League ( English ) IAAF. June 30, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
24. ↑ Bob Ramsak: Semenya clocks 49.96, Amos defeats Korir in Asaba - African Championships, day three ( English ) IAAF. August 3, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
25. ↑ Bob Ramsak: Kenya takes six more titles as African Championships conclude in Asaba ( English ) IAAF. August 5, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
26. ↑ Caster Semenya refuses hormone treatment. In: zeit.de. ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, May 4, 2019, accessed on August 2, 2019 . 
27. ↑ Press release of the CAS to decide ( English ) CAS. May 1, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
28. ↑ Johannes Knuth: CAS decision on Caster Semenya: When is a woman a woman? . Southgerman newspaper. May 1, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
29. ↑ Decision of the federal court - testosterone rule applies again to Semenya. In: srf.ch . July 30, 2019, accessed July 31, 2019 . 
30. ↑ Caster Semenya loses testosterone limit suit . Time online. May 1, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
31. ↑ https://www.l-mag.de/k-word/k-word-182-neues-aus-der-lesbenwelt.html
32. ^ National Orders Recipients 2014. In: South African History Online, accessed December 27, 2015