Even when she was finally cleared to return to women s competition, beginning with that meeting in Finland, she still struggled for acceptance by her peers.
At a meeting in Berlin a couple of months later, where Semenya won easily against a high-class field, Canadian runner Diane Cummins said: Is she man, is she lady? What constitutes male, what constitutes female?
Even if she is a female, she s on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man.
The furore over her ambiguous gender has subsided over the last couple of years to the extent that her selection as the South Africa flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony raised barely a flicker of media interest.
It is partly because she has enjoyed none of the dominance that she had when she won her world title in 2009, and so her presence is no longer so controversial.
Even when she did revive memories of her old form when she ran 1-56.53sec in the final at last year s worlds in Daegu, she was still beaten into second place by Russia s Mariya Savinova one of her key rivals in Saturday's final.
In fact, her performances have been so inconsistent over the past two seasons that theories have circulated about how she could have been trying not to appear too dominant so as to avoid further scrutiny from the IAAF.
Another theory is that her form has been skewed by feminising hormones that she has been required to take as a condition of her return to women s competition. She has always refused to answer questions about whether she is receiving ongoing treatment for an inter-sex condition.
The inconsistency has continued right up to the Games, which she arrived at with only the 21st quickest time of the season, but the manner of her victory on Thursday suggests she will be in the mix for gold.
Savinova will be a big threat, while Kenya s defending Olympic champion, Pamela Jelimo, is the fastest woman in the world this year, but Semenya is cutting a confident figure.
I ve done enough in training and it is just a matter of time, pump with the legs, just run, she said.
The moment she dreamed about in her darkest days has finally arrived.
No comments:
Post a Comment