If you go to the Twitter account of South African sprinter Caster Semenya, you will find that many of her tweets contain messages like this: "Be happy in front of your haters. It kills them." It's because hate, great blasts of it, often comes her way. Semenya, 25, is the favourite to win the gold in the women's 800m in Rio on Sunday. In fact, she has been in such blistering form this year that she could end up shattering the event's 33-year-old record set by Jarmila Kratochvílova of Czechoslovakia. Yet, even as she stands on the threshold of greatness, Semenya has been at the centre of controversy, debate and at times, plain loathing.
Semenya is hyperandrogenic, with significantly higher levels of testosterone than that occurring in an average woman. The controversy around her pivots on this. Testosterone builds muscle mass, spurs red blood cell production, and boosts the oxygen carrying capacity of cells, all of which are critical for an athlete's peak performance. The question is, since Semenya has naturally elevated levels of the hormone, does she have an unfair advantage over other women athletes in the fray? Should she then be allowed to participate in a women's event?
These questions have been swirling around Semenya ever since she blazed past her competitors to win the gold in 800m at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009. At the Rio Olympics, they have sharpened into one of the trickiest ethical debates on inclusiveness in sport: It would be a violation of Semenya's human rights to debar her from competing because of her gender and hormonal attributes. But is her human right to participate in international sports at odds with her competitors' right to a level playing field? Again, at a time when the very idea of "normal" is being recast in every aspect of our social and cultural life, should we consider her an outlier at all?
That Semenya did not fit the female gender stereotype was evident from the outset. At Berlin in 2009, her deep voice, prominent Adam's apple and unusually strong musculature were remarked upon. After she won the 800m gold, Italy's Elisa Cusma, who came sixth, said, "These kind of people should not run with us. For me, she is not a woman. She is a man." The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) soon banned Semenya from competing. Media reports said tests had revealed that she was intersex, or a person with both male and female physical characteristics.
When she was allowed to return to the sporting arena in 2010, Semenya's timings plummeted, leading to speculation that she had been taking hormone suppressants to lower her testosterone to IAAF-approved "normal" feminine levels. Even so, she won the silver in 800m at the London Olympics in 2012.
There is an uplifting India angle to the Caster Semenya story. In 2014, sprinter Dutee Chand was also banned by the IAAF for hyperandrogenism. But instead of taking hormone suppressants, a spunky Chand appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Last year CAS decided in her favour and suspended the IAAF rule, calling it discriminatory. The IAAF now has until 2017 to come up with compelling scientific evidence to prove that high testosterone levels do lead to better athletic performance.
Thanks to the CAS ruling, Semenya, Chand and other undisclosed intersex athletes came to the Rio Games without having had to drug their bodies to conform to IAAF's testosterone standards for female athletes.
Ironically, the dismal performance of Dutee Chand in Rio - she crashed out at the heats for the 100m - lends credence to the view that high levels of testosterone may not necessarily result in outstanding performance. A champion is not just a function of his or her hormones. In elite sports success depends on many other factors such as talent, hard work, quality of training, and, above all, an unflagging will to triumph. You could be brimming with testosterone and still come up short if you were ill-disciplined or under-prepared.
Many sports commentators have pointed out that the concept of a level playing field in sports is, in any case, spurious. Whether it is the gargantuan arm span of a Michael Phelps or the unusually long stride of an Usain Bolt, champions are invariably equipped with genetic meal tickets that give them a head start over their competitors. If those attributes are a matter of wonder and awe, why hold Semenya's high testosterone levels against her? Moreover, if there is no upper limit for natural testosterone for male athletes, why should there be a limit for women?
In the 1960s, women athletes were subjected to degrading "nude tests" ostensibly to catch men who posed as women in the hope of getting a medal. Since then the tests have become more civilised, be it the chromosome checks that started in the 1970s or the more recent androgen tests. However, they all seek to fit women into traditional templates of femaleness. The misfits are invariably thrown out.
When Caster Semenya whizzes from gun to tape on Sunday, we might want to ponder if it's finally time to celebrate, rather than denounce, diversity in women's sport.
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