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<\/p>\nCaster Semenya has said she will not allow her children to enter athletics <\/p>\n
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Two-time Olympic gold medal winning runner Caster Semenya has said that she will not allow her children to compete in athletics because women are \u201ctreated like animals\u201d.<\/p>\n
The South African won 800 metres gold at London 2012 and four years later in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n
Semenya has been unable to run over her preferred distance since 2019, though, after the sport\u2019s governing body World Athletics introduced new rules blocking athletes with some disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400, 800 and 1500-metre races.<\/p>\n
Semenya was identified as female at birth, but has a condition that means she has XY chromosomes, undescended testes and naturally higher testosterone levels.<\/p>\n
The European court of human rights (ECHR) ruled earlier this year that she had been let down by the Swiss legal system in her battle against limits on testosterone levels for female athletes, while her case has now been referred to ECHR\u2019s grand chamber.<\/p>\n
Semenya began her challenge of World Athletics in 2018 claiming that the body had used her as a \u201cguinea pig\u201d and that testosterone-surpressing medication had caused her abdominal pain and made her \u201cconstantly sick\u201d.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old shares two children with her wife, former middle distance runner Violet Raseboya, and has said that she will not allow them to pursue athletics. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo way. They will not do athletics,\u2019 Semenya\u2019s told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Woman\u2019s Hour. <\/em>\u201cI need to take them away from this nonsense of women being treated like they are animals.\u201d<\/p>\n In her autobiography, The Race to Be Myself, <\/em>Semenya recalls taking a gender recognition test in 2009, the same year she secured a first world title in Berlin at the age of 18.<\/p>\n Caster Semenya won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics <\/p>\n The runner has insisted, though, that her condition has never given her a competitive advantage, opposing World Athletics\u2019 position.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it\u2019s not about what people label you, it\u2019s about knowing your identity,\u201d Semenya said. \u201cIt\u2019s about you knowing yourself. I think, for me, that\u2019s when self discovery comes. That\u2019s when I start understanding myself and understanding the woman I am.<\/p>\n \u201cI have the internal testes, but they don\u2019t produce anything, they don\u2019t mean anything. It\u2019s more like a disorder in the medical term. Even [World Athletics president] Sebastian [Coe] knows that. They know that it does not play any role in sports. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s never any unfair advantage over that. Why? Number one, it\u2019s just a high elevated testosterone. If I had an advantage, why am I running the same times that they are running?\u201d<\/p>\n A World Athletics statement released to the BBC said: \u201cWorld Athletics has 15 years of data, observations and information directly from DSD athletes in our own sport that show high testosterone levels do provide an unfair advantage in the female category \u2013 and that our guidelines on testosterone thresholds are necessary, reasonable, and proportionate in our aim to protect the integrity of the female category.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2023\/11\/07\/09\/newFile-1.jpg\")
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