“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.

“I was a multi-use player; I could be a striker or a defender. I knew how to handle the ball, how to open space on the pitch, how to dribble. No one cared I was a girl, they just wanted to win. The kids and adults would all gather to see me play and they’d chant “Mokgadi!

Mokgadi! Mokgadi!” I loved to hear my name. I’d love to give those who came to see me a show. You could say I was a performer even from young. I enjoyed being the center of attention.

“I knew who he was. I’d seen him once the year before at a cross-country competition, and people talked about him. His name was Michael Seme. He was a Zulu man from Soweto, well known for helping runners achieve their maximum potential. He was kind of like the Mr. Miyagi of running, and he had a long list of accomplished athletes, including Stephen Mokoka, already an international long-distance champion.

“I knew from what happened to my father and what I’d seen on television that a career in sports didn’t last forever. Athletes have a small window of time to work with their body. And injuries don’t care whether you are young or old. The important thing was that if running didn’t work out for me, I would at least have a diploma from a respected university that would help me get a job. That would be my future, I decided, but for now, I had to get faster.

“Jean was a soft-spoken and deliberate man. He had a calming presence. He did not push me. What we needed, he said, was to get me back to basics. More than anything, Jean wanted me to rediscover my love of running. He believed I understood my body better than anyone else. If he knew I was on the IAAF’s drug regimen, he didn’t let on. We never discussed it. Jean treated me like he treated everyone else in the group.