“Of course, growing up I knew I looked and behaved differently from many of my peers, but my family, my community, and my country accepted me as I was and never made me feel like an outsider. The beauty of my childhood was that I never felt othered or unwanted—this is the source of my strength. I have never questioned who I am.

“I feel that the IAAF has confiscated a large part of my life. I’ve spent as much time fighting them as I have training and racing. They have stolen years of performances not only from me but also from the audience—their joy at seeing me on the track over the years, win or lose, has brought me joy. The blow of every insult hurled at me has been softened by the love and admiration of people who watch me run.

“They were all good soccer players, but they knew they weren’t great. And most of them were playing for fun, they weren’t dreaming of getting on airplanes and being a professional athlete like I was. “Doesn’t matter what you say. You can’t understand,” I’d say to them. “I can see light with my running. All of you are here just chasing a ball around a field. Where’ that going to take you?” I had to be as harsh with them as they were being with me. I wanted to live in a proper city, travel the world, be known and appreciated for my talents.

“And here is what made Seme an excellent coach. He knew I had been coaching myself. He first wanted to understand what I had been doing, mostly on my own, to bring me to the point where he would notice me. And I told him. I was doing the things I’d seen athletes at bigger schools with actual tracks do. I told him I would run by myself when I wasn’t taking care of my family home. I remember Seme nodded and then just added to the foundation I’d laid for myself. He found my running form to be too loose, he felt I swung my arms too much and held my head too far back. He would eventually help me get to the form that made me a winner—arms locked in close to my body, chest high, head centered. Seme was a coach who understood where you were. This is why, despite everything that came between us in the future, I will always say he is the best coach I’ve ever had. He became like a father to me. Seme knew when to push and when we needed to rest.

“The way Boss put it, being a clean athlete was everything. He told me not to trust people. To stay humble.