Worth Her Weight in Gold

Caster Semenya earned her medal with courage, grit and dignity but the storm around her gender refuses to die down.

- Nicola Whitfield

SHE was quite simply in a class of her own. The Olympic motto of “faster, higher, stronger” could have been created with her in mind as she unleashed her power, leaving the field trailing in her wake and stamping her authority on the women’s 800 m race.

“I’m a dreamer,” the South African athlete said before the Rio Games, “and what I dream is to become an Olympic champion.”

Now that dream has come true and you have to take your hat off to Caster Semenya, not only because she’s the best in the world but because she refused to be cowed by her critics. There’s little doubt it would have been easier for her if she hadn’t won – taking silver or bronze would have dimmed the spotlight and quelled the controversy to some extent.

Caster (25) was one of the most contentious figures in Rio de Janeiro as the issue of her hyperandrogenism was debated across the world. Back home the hashtag #HandsOffCaster trended for days in the run-up to her race as the nation rallied behind her.

Thousands of South Africans rose at ungodly hours to watch her run in the semifinal, then the final, cheering her on and rejoicing in her victory.

Now the young woman from Fairlie, Limpopo, returns with a gold medal – and to an uncertain future. The humiliation and scrutiny she was first subjected to in 2009 is by no means over.

But Caster put on a brave face, refusing to engage in the storm over her testosterone levels and speaking only about her sport. “I can’t stop running because of people,” she said before the Games. “If you have a problem with it you have to come straight to me and tell me. I can’t stop because people say, ‘No, she looks like a man, this and that.’ It’s their problem. Not mine.”