Rio 2016: A win for Caster Semenya is a win for women
OPINION
Updated
Regardless of where Caster Semenya falls on the gender spectrum, she is as deserving an Olympic champion as we'll ever see, writes Madeleine Pape.
Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Caster Semenya: three outstanding women who were equally dominant in winning gold medals at this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Only one inspired a vicious trial by public opinion with no support from her sports governing body.
Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps: two men who have been invincible in multiple events over at least three Olympics and who are celebrated for leaving indelible marks on their respective sports.
Any reasonable sports fan has to wonder: why does a gold medal around South African middle distance runner Caster Semenya's neck provoke such a different and hateful reaction than that to Bolt and Phelps's achievements?
Why does our perception of "fair" advantage shift so radically when Semenya enters the frame?
Since winning the 800m at the 2009 track and field world championships, Semenya has been subjected to intense scrutiny for allegedly having higher than "normal" levels of testosterone and therefore an unfair advantage over her competitors. But does this single biological factor make the decisive difference that some commentators and competitors are claiming, or are we giving testosterone more credit than it deserves?
Women are a heterogeneous bunch. This is a biological and social fact that we're mostly happy to celebrate. Not so in the sport of athletics, where the IAAF (our international governing body) is keen to limit the heterogeneity of women competing at the elite level.
As Semenya crossed the finish line in Rio to become the Olympic champion in the women's 800m, some television commentators offered only lukewarm appraisals of her achievement while others expressed outright dismay that she had been allowed to compete freely in the first place.
"Something must be done," they said.
And they're right, something must be done. It's time for the athletics community to confront the reality that opposition to Semenya is invariably the product of poor leadership and convenient ignorance.
What does 'not woman enough' even mean?
I say this as a member of that community. In 2009 I competed against Semenya at the World Championships in Berlin. I performed terribly, Semenya won gold, and I joined the chorus of voices condemning her for not being 'woman' enough (whatever that meant).
Fast-forward five years and I was testifying before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in support of Indian sprinter and now Rio Olympian Dutee Chand, calling for the IAAF's and IOC's hyperandrogenism regulations to be permanently shelved.
She's a woman. Simple. #HandsOffCaster
These regulations required female athletes to keep their naturally occurring testosterone below the so-called male range.
Make no mistake: Chand was not the real target of the regulations, she was just the collateral damage. But against all odds, Chand won.
Now she has become a thorn in the side of the IOC and IAAF and is blamed for allowing Semenya to return to her world-leading best.
So much speculation
Most of us know a lot less than we think about 25-year old Semenya. We know that she is Black, South African, queer, and a tomboy, all factors that are not peripheral to the story.
We know that on the eve of her 2009 world championship victory, the IAAF announced they were investigating her gender.
But much of the rest is speculation. We don't know what medication or surgery — if any — Semenya was required to undertake before being allowed to compete again.
We don't know if her return to form this season has anything at all to do with the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in 2015 to suspend the hyperandrogenism regulations of the IAAF and IOC.
We also don't even know whether testosterone has a definitive effect on either athletic performance or sex difference.
In fact all we can say with certainty is that the IAAF was unable to prove to the CAS that naturally occurring testosterone provides such a competitive advantage that women with elevated levels should be required to undergo "treatment" or prevented from competing. The decision was led by Australian Federal Court Judge Annabelle Bennett.
In other words, the reasoning of Semenya's critics is out of sync with the best available scientific evidenceand current legal standards.
'All of us are equally women'
The IAAF and IOC have made no effort to inform the sporting world about the complexity of athletic performance and sex difference. Instead, they have doggedly continued on their crusade to eliminate a woman who is no more exceptional than the champions we have come to know and love.
In addition to this inexplicable absence of leadership from sporting bodies that have the power and means to do better, we have seen a stunning willingness by some coaches and competitors to express opposition to Semenya's right to compete when they know as little as we do about the factors that have contributed to her success.
She remains a hero to many in SA and we will defend her from skewed conceptions of femininity in sport #WeSupportCaster#HandsOffCaster
They cry out for a "level playing field" as if such a thing could ever exist.
They conveniently don't check their facts, and we don't ask them to. And that's a problem, because the people with the most power to be heard are often ill-informed.
Semenya is as deserving an Olympic champion as we'll ever see. I don't know where she falls on the gender spectrum, and frankly I don't care.
The witch-hunt of Semenya smacks of archaic resistance to the reality that we women are naturally diverse. Some of us are simply better than others, but all of us are equally women.
Madeleine Pape is a former 800m runner who competed for Australia at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin. She is now undertaking her PhD in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Editor's note (22/8): An earlier version of this piece contained a sentence added by editors for context. This included a reference to testosterone as a male hormone and speculation regarding Semenya's level of it. This has been removed.
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