“I can’t biologically contribute to making new life. I did not know any of this about my body until soon after August 2009, when I won the gold medal in the 800-m race at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany. I was only eighteen years old and had been subjected to invasive and humiliating gender confirmation tests without my consent just prior to the race. What followed was a media firestorm that continues to this day.

“With the help of a journalist who was also an academician in gender matters, Dutee announced she would bring a legal challenge to the IAAF’s hyperandrogenism regulations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that winter. The case eventually went to CAS in March 2015. I was not aware of Dutee, or even aware of the IAAF’s medical study on the four young runners, until much later. The IAAF’s position was that women with high testosterone levels had an unfair advantage equal to the advantage that male athletes had over female athletes.

“I am the fourth fastest 800-m runner in the history of the sport. And as far as I know, not one of the women who have run the 800 meter faster than me had my condition. I had differences in my body, yes, but it should be common sense that whatever my testosterone level may be, it does not make me male. And if speed was all about testosterone, then why wasn’t I as fast as my male colleagues? An elite male athlete with natural testosterone levels in the accepted female range would still outrun me by the 10 percent to 12 percent performance gap.

“On May 29, my team appealed the CAS verdict to the Swiss Supreme Court on the grounds that it was discriminatory, and I put out a public statement: “I am a woman and I am a world-class athlete. The IAAF will not drug me or stop me from being who I am.” This fight had gone beyond me proving I had no physiological advantage on the field over other women. This fight was about human rights. It was wrong to compel perfectly healthy people to harm themselves to participate in a sport based on manufactured evidence. A few days later, on June 3rd, the Swiss Court suspended the CAS ruling.

“It would be better for athletics and athletes if Sebastian Coe focused on real cheaters instead of focusing on rare but completely natural biological variations in women or the transgendered athletes who are supposedly waiting to take women’s medals. It would be even better if the sporting powers focused on the things that women really need to become better athletes—they can start with equitable pay, making sure we can do our jobs without being harassed physically and mentally, creating a system where resources are distributed fairly.” (Semenya “The Race To Be Myself”, p.295)

“I think of marathoner Eliud Kipchoge’s words on his success: “Learn to say no, learn self-discipline, avoid complaining.