Caster Semenya: "I was afraid I'd have a heart attack. Allegations tortured me"



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Caster Semenya: "I was afraid I'd have a heart attack. Allegations tortured me"

Caster Semenya, during an interview for HBO Real Sports, said how prejudices, suspicions about his muscles, voice and face have tortured her. She told: "According to World Athletics and its members I am a male if I have to run the 400m, 800m, 1500m and mile.

Instead I am a female in 100m, 200m and long distance events. What nonsense is ever This one? To run in Tokyo 2020 they thought I had cock. I told them, to the judges: I'm a female. If you want to see I'm a woman, I'll show you my vag*na.

Okay? This thing tortured me. It was like stabbing myself with a knife every day. They made me sick, they made me fat, I had panic attacks, I was also afraid I would have a heart attack. I was 18, I wanted to run, I wanted to get to the Olympics.

And I had no choice. " Her case was taken by Human Right Watch which highlighted that there is no scientific evidence either of the standards of femininity strictly related to testosterone levels or on the fact that a parameter greater than the latter improves performance.

In fact, Semenya was born with internal testicles and suffers from hyperandrogenism which causes a high level of production of the male hormones, testosterone, by the endocrine glands, adrenals and ovaries. A blood concentration higher than 5 nanomoles per liter is the barrier to be considered biologically no longer a woman but a man.

Caster Semenya's career

On 27 July 2012 she is chosen as the flag bearer for South Africa at the opening ceremony of the XXX Olympiad in London. In December 2015, she got married to his fiancée Violet Raseboya. In 2018 she becomes the first athlete ever capable of holding a personal best of less than 50 seconds in the 400 meters flat, less than 2 minutes in the 800 meters and less than 4 minutes in the 1500 meters.

In 2019 Caster Semenya filed an appeal with the Sports Arbitration Tribunal against the new legislation introduced by the IAAF which provides that athletes who exceed the limit of 5 nanomoles of testosterone per liter of blood must reduce the value of their testosterone by undertaking a specific drug treatment, in order to be able to compete in international events over distances ranging from 400m to mile.

Following the decision by the CAS to validate the new rule, the South African federation appeals to the Swiss Federal Court which on June 3 temporarily suspends the application of the regulation on the limitation of testosterone, allowing Semenya to return to compete. However, in July the same Swiss Federal Court cancels the suspension of the new rule.