Durban — Caster Semenya says talent, not testosterone, is the secret to her success on the athletics track.
If it was testosterone, then all men would be like Jamaican track legend Usain Bolt, she told those who attended her book launch in Durban this week.
While her competitive running days are over, Semenya continues her fight against the injustices faced by women, especially African and Asian athletes on the global field.
“I believe in my work, I believe in my purpose, I believe in the vision I have to change others so that others see life in a different way,” she said.
In her autobiography, The Race To Be Myself, she candidly talks about her career, the intrusive medical tests she had to undergo and the continued injustices she has faced.
Semenya says she believes that God put her on this path and remains confident and committed that she is running a good race.
“It’s God's plan for me to follow the path. He guided me to the direction of athletics, he took me out of Limpopo to athletics for a reason; to be the change and to raise awareness,” she said.
The first thing you read when you open the book is the message: “For those who are born different and feel that they don’t belong in this world. It is because you were brought here to help create a new one.”
It’s a book that South Africa’s global entertainment star Trevor Noah has described as “A story that makes us all interrogate our humanity and the world we build with our actions every day”.
At the launch Semenya, accompanied by her wife Violet and their two daughters, spoke at length about her life’s purpose, at times sounding like a spiritual leader.
“It was meant to be, that’s the script that God wrote about Caster Semenya’s life, and I believe that everyone has their own script in this world. I think everyone has a purpose,” she told the Independent on Saturday.
In July the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favour of Semenya after the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Tribunal found that she unduly benefited from her high testosterone levels.
However, this positive ruling does not automatically open the way for her or any other female runner with differences of sex development to run competitively again and World Athletics had indicated that it wanted the matter to be referred back to the ECHR.
“This is unfinished business. We need clarity, things need to be explained, we can’t accept something that we still believe is unjust. We need a full review of this case. We need people to go out there and be clean. Don’t be biased, just rule based on what is right.”
Semenya says she’s happy she faced these challenges while in athletics because it raised awareness of what women in sport have to endure, and she thinks it’s important that people realise you can’t discriminate against others just because they are different.
“If we are going to talk about our differences then it becomes a huge debate that we can never finish, so what I can say is that it doesn’t really matter if we are different or not.”
And while many want to know if she is eager to return to the racing track, she says “not really”, because she is living a life of purpose.
Right now she is happy and her focus is on being a mom to two daughters and building her legacy.
“I live for my kids, it’s about doing what’s right for my kids. Making sure I guide them. I want to make sure that they live a good life,” Semenya said.
Several people, mainly women, lined up to have their books autographed by Semenya at the launch.
eManzimtoti resident Shalini Naidoo delighted the 800m world champion when she whipped out a picture of the two of them taken in Durban in 2011.
Naidoo, who once also dreamt of being a professional athlete, said she and her mom were lucky to have a chat and a picture taken with Semenya when she competed at the South African Athletics Championships in Durban in 2011.
An ardent fan of Semenya’s, Naidoo says she has followed her career closely and has an archive of videos she has taken of Semenya at her various races.
“I used to record just about everything,” she said.
She described Semenya as the embodiment of Nelson Mandela’s message that sport can change the world, but feels the country had often let Semenya down and she “didn't get her flowers”.
“We know as South Africans how to rally and how we can get things together, but I just don’t understand why that energy wasn’t there for her, consistently. That probably speaks to why she is doing this now. She doesn’t want the next Semenya to come through to experience the same problems; it would be so unnecessary.”
Naidoo said most people did not understand what Semenya was doing, and it would take another 10 or 15 years before they realised the impact of her actions.
Independent on Saturday