"I'm 18, I want to run, I want to make it to Olympics, that's the only option for me." "It's like stabbing yourself with a knife every day. "It made me sick, made me gain weight, panic attacks, I don't know if I was ever going to have a heart attack," Semenya said. She took medication after an initial ruling in 2011 by the IAAF - which became World Athletics in June 2019 - that all female athletes with hyperandrogenism had to lower their testosterone levels through medical means.ĭouble Olympic 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya has spoken of her mental anguish at being denied the opportunity by World Athletics to compete internationally at distances between 400m and the mile ©Getty Images Semenya has a condition known as hyperandrogenism, which is characterised by higher than usual levels of testosterone, a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength and the body's ability to use oxygen.
Gender tests on Semenya reportedly showed the runner had internal testes, the male sexual organs which produce testosterone, and her levels of the hormone were three times that of a "normal" female.
If you want to see I'm a woman, I will show you my vagina. "They thought I had a dick, probably," Semenya told HBO.
Shortly after Semenya had announced herself as a global talent by taking the 800m world title in Berlin by a huge margin, the sport's world governing body – then the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) - said she would undergo gender verification tests. The 31-year-old South African middle-distance runner, who also earned 800m Olympic gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 before being ruled ineligible to carry on racing over that distance due to her naturally elevated testosterone levels, revealed the incident during an interview with HBO's Real Sports. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.Caster Semenya offered to show her vagina to athletics officials in 2009 when she won her first world 800 metres title aged 18 to prove she was female.
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