Caster Semenya runs along the side of the Stanford University track to stop the end of June to take selfies with fans crowding around a fence to get a look at it. “We love you, Caster!” She cries a spectator. A man gives a thumbs up. “I can not believe it that I was so close,” says a woman who, like Semenya comes from South Africa. Two-time Olympic champion and world champion three times in the 800 meters women have just stopped the prestigious Prefontaine Classic in Stanford, the race in 1 min. clocked 55.70 sec., the fastest 800m time on American soil. “When you’re old,” he now says Semenya during worship enjoy, “You’re great.” If the global governing body for athletics has its way, however, the scene would be an illusion to Stanford. Last year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has issued new rules mandating that female athletes with “differences of sexual development” -defined as the presence of pairs of XY chromosomes normally found not men could in the women’s race the competition 400 meters down the road, if not for medical intervention lowered their natural testosterone to a level closer to what the topic of the IAAF as “feminine area.” the IAAF that high levels of testosterone by athletes produced with this gene-ups give them an unfair advantage over other female athletes in this race. Semenya, confronted control around her sex for a decade and would not be eligible for the Women 800m during the execution with these new rules, called the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), settles disputes global sport. In May, the CAS announced that it was maintaining the IAAF rules; Semenya then took his case to the Supreme Court of Switzerland, who ordered a temporary suspension of the rules until there’s a decision. So Semenya ran the Prefontaine race without their hormones to suppress, and can compete at the World Championships, which begin in Doha, Qatar 27 September. His case was stirred passions around the world as key questions touching on genetics, gender identity and fair play. It ‘also possible to classify athletes as men and women, when the human body emits signals at times complicated? Semenya was a woman, was born, he grew up as a woman and is legally recognized as a woman. “Of course I’m a woman,” he says in his hotel in the north of Palo Alto, California back. “I have a vagina. I do not have a penis.” I Keep discriminatory IAAF Rule. “What we are saying is that if a woman performs at a high level, it is a problem,” said Semenya. “But if a man wears, ohhhh size, All Hail the greatest”. In addition, the CAS said in its decision that the IAAF rules are “discriminatory”, but that this discrimination is reasonable and necessary level playing field for female athletes to promote. Semenya insists if the IAAF rule holds, will refuse to take medication to lower their testosterone. “If I go on foot, of course I will go away,” he says. “It ‘how to kill himself” In CAS testimony showed Semenya from about 2010-2015 under the thrust of the IAAF, they have taken the pill to lower their testosterone; He said the drugs cause ill feeling constantly suffer from regular fever and experience abdominal pain among other symptoms. Their confidence right away. He felt like the IAAF treat her like a “lab rat”, and she says she can not take in another experiment. What baffles most illustrious Semenya because the IAAF would want to drive an attraction of his sport? With it he won both of their dominant ideas, are constantly in the headlines call 31 race of 800 meters straight in 2015, and the biological controversy, Semenya is likely to follow and greatest celebrity field. And ‘it supported by Nike, that. In a new advertising campaign last year, LeBron James took one of his races in Berlin. A fan at the Prefontaine Classic swears he “never felt more alive” than when observed only glide Semenya. “If people want to come watch Caster Semenya running, then let them see it running Caster Semenya,” said Semenya. “What interests but a man is to see, inspired by another person. Do not destroy it! And ‘too much to ask?” Semenya, who earned a university sports science degree in South Africa in 2018, must bring themselves taught to all sounds around them silenced. She believes that the IAAF is “obsessed” with her. Track officials little sense in return through the payment, it is already a step forward. “Are you a free soul,” he says. “I have run my race, then go home, I will. You think of me. I’ll give you nightmares. Do not even think about you.” Semenya, but do our interview with the president of the IAAF Sebastian Coe to call. She him a “chicken” for his arguments against it to make in court and the media, rather than engaging directly Semenya considered. “He must need balls to come tell me Dass, Schauen you, Caster, I do not want you ‘,” said Semenya. “Then I’ll tell you, that’s your problem.” (In a statement, the IAAF writes that Coe and the organization “feel very strong” “That was never an athlete.” On the protection of fair competition for runners.) Semenya directly speaks with a kind of infectious Despite. She has to do, of course, a good psychologist, pastor or politician. (When I mentioned that to me, raises from public office and to preach. But it is open to a sport fall practice.) It grows in South Africa, from a young age in a rural village in the province of Limpopo, Semenya knew that was otherwise . “I have a deep voice, I did not, I play the breast with the boys,” he says. “All right.” But they never found her sex in question. “It does not change that I’m a woman,” he says. “I’m not a man … I will not live like a man, but if I like pants, I wear the pants if I like suits, I like clothes, I will not go carry skirts, wear clothes when I do not fit. “So if the IAAF said in court that Semenya” biologically male, “was the description hurt” more than I can express in words. “did not cut out to be a lot.” you call me something I’m not, “he Semenya said. “you should be careful.”, with all their gold medals, Semenya could easily leave this dispute and move away from their sport with their place in the record books. But she still has some work to do, both on and off the track Semenya is in its international season 12th: “Because I can not do it,” he says, ran for 21 years and in six Olympics attended their idol, 800 meters runner Maria Mutola of Mozambique Semenya’s 800 world record time … -m d in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvílová Mise Czechoslovakia, is at hand: Semenya ran the fastest ever race a year ago, less than a second behind pace Kratochvilova and the fourth best time ever. “I want to break records and thus be the biggest of all time,” said Semenya. Then there’s the biggest struggle for their rights and the rights of others to run free. “There are a lot of athletes who have the same problem that I like, but they can not fight,” said Semenya. “If I do not fight for it, no one will fight for it.” So she wants to run at the Olympics in Tokyo next summer, and Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028. In June, a few words of encouragement for the South Africa World Cup team in Paris: she says she can give it a shot of football. At the 2032 Olympic Games, wherever they take place-Semenya 41 would perhaps she jokes, she will run a marathon. Or maybe it’s not a joke. “The train is moving, I do not stop, you know?” That said Semenya. “I am here to stay. You’d better get used to it. Oa feet.” This appears in the July 29, 2019 issue of time. Photo copyright Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt AFP / Getty Images
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