A number of Africa’s finest sportsmen and women failed to make the Tokyo Olympic Games for a variety of reasons that in the most part had little to do with performance.



By Nick Said



The Tokyo Olympic Games were for some athletes the pinnacle of their career and a stage for outstanding achievements, but for others, the Japan National Stadium (the venue of the Games) will always represent a field of broken dreams.



A number of Africa’s finest sportsmen and women failed to make it to the Games, which was held from July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, for a variety of reasons that in the most part had little to do with performance.



Amidst the ecstasy of winning a gold medal, there is always equal pain being felt elsewhere, leaving some of the continent’s top stars at a crossroads in their hugely successful careers. 



The most high-profile of these is two-time former 800-metersOlympics champion Caster Semenya, who failed in her bid to qualify for the Games in the 5,000-meters, having been forced into the longer distance by World Athletics’ regulations for athletes with Differences in Sexual Development (DSD) who wish to compete in races from 400-meters to a mile.



Athletes such as Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba from Burundi and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui, were forced into the sporting wilderness in their chosen distance in a ruling described by Come Damien Georges Awoumou, minister- counsellor at the Cameroon mission to the United Nations, as having the “same effect as apartheid, one of the international crimes against humanity”, which he said at a special debate on sports and human rights at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.



The latest to fall foul of the regulations were Namibian teenagers Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, who were in blistering form in the 400-meters ahead of the games and seen as genuine medal contenders until World Athletics barred them from competing over that distance. Semenya is taking the fight, not just for herself, but all DSD athletes with naturally high levels of testosterone, to the European Court of Human Rights, who are likely to make a ruling later this year on whether the regulations should be suspended.



She has not given up on competing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and there will be many other athletes from the global south hoping she wins.



“The ban doesn’t make sense at all. But hey, that’s none of my business. I’ll leave it up to the right people to handle the situation, I’ll keep fighting for my rights,” Semenya said in June to Belgian television after finishing fourth in a 5,000-meter race in Liège, Belgium.



“Of course I hope the rule changes. I’m an 800-meters runner. There’s no doubt about that. I keep hoping that I can run my preferred number (distance). But right now my focus is on being healthy. To be an inspiration for young athletes. I will continue to fight for my rights.”



Says a spokesperson at World Athletics: “For many years, World Athletics has fought for and defended equal rights and opportunities for all women and girls in our sport today and in the future. Throughout this long battle, World Athletics has always maintained that its regulations are lawful and legitimate, and that they represent a reasonable, necessary and proportionate means of ensuring the rights of all female athletes to participate on fair and equal terms. It has rejected the suggestion that they infringe any athlete’s human rights, including the right to dignity and the right to bodily integrity.”



Kenya’s David Rudisha, regarded as the greatest 800-meters runner in history and a double-Olympic champion in 2012 and 2016, missed the Tokyo Games after a succession of injury setbacks.



He was desperate to compete but had not run since 2017 following ankle, leg and back injuries, as well as a serious car accident in which his SUV was written off when he collided head-on with a bus in Nairobi.



His race to be fit and in shape to fight for a gold medal was hampered, in part, by the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant limited training and competition.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">Covid-19 ruled Nigerian basketball star Michael Eric out of the Games after he admitted to battling with the after- effects of the virus.</blockquote>



Two of Kenya’s other current greats were also high- profile absentees as world 1,500-meters champion Timothy Cheruiyot and 2016 Olympic 3000-meters steeplechase winner Conseslus Kipruto both failed to make the team.



At the Kenyan trials, Cheruiyot, who had not finished worse than second in any race for four years, was passed down the final straight and finished fourth to drop out of contention.



Kipruto won the World Championship titles in 2017 and 2019, but soon after the second of those wins, was reportedly charged with sexual assault and has entered just three races since, without finishing any of them. Neither have commented on their futures.



South African long-jump silver medalist from the 2016 Games, Luvo Manyonga, a self-confessed former methamphetamine addict who missed the 2012 Olympics because of an 18-month drugs ban, cleaned up his act to be one of South Africa’s stars at the Games in Rio de Janeiro five years ago. But he was handed a four-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) in June after missing three scheduled drugs tests having not provided details of his whereabouts as required by the AIU.



Covid-19 ruled Nigerian basketball star Michael Eric out of the Games after he admitted to battling with the after- effects of the virus, saying “my health and physical shape went through a traumatic experience”. It shone a spotlight on the effects the virus has on athletes’ bodies, and how it is not just performance that can suffer, but confidence too.



And then there were some who were simply not released by their employers to compete – among the most high-profile of these being Liverpool and Egypt striker Mo Salah.



He was desperate to feature at the Games, but Liverpool reportedly refused to allow him to travel as it would have meant a disrupted pre-season and start to the new English Premier League campaign.

Ian MacNicol Archive

If Not Tokyo, Then Paris 2024?

TOPLINE After demolishing the field in the women’s 100-meter finals last week, Jamaican sprinters Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will be part of a star-studded lineup vying for gold in the 200-meter final at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday amid controversy about two finalists from Namibia who have been barred from the 400-meter race following a contentious testosterone ruling.



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



The 200-meter women’s finals are expected to be among the most competitive track and field events at the Tokyo Games with multiple gold medal contenders.



Thompson-Herah will look to pull off a repeat of her 200-meter gold win at the Rio Olympics and just like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/31/elaine-thompson-herah-takes-stunning-olympic-gold-in-womens-100m" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">last week’s 100-meter final</a>, she will likely be challenged by her compatriot Fraser-Pryce.



Among the challengers will be American Gabby Thomas, the Harvard-educated neurobiology major who overcame a health scare earlier this summer to post the second-fastest ever women’s 200-meter time of 21.61—second only to Griffith-Joyner’s world record of 21.34 seconds.



Bahamian sprinter and current holder of the 400-meter Olympic gold medal, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and 100-meter African record holder Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast will also be in the mix.



All eyes will also be on two 18-year old Namibian runners—Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi—who were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-track-and-field-shaunae-miller-elaine-thompson-sports-3e29b4cf0394f204fbcde928ad2c9f03" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">controversially barred</a>&nbsp;from participating in the 400-meter event as World Athletics ruled that their naturally occurring high testosterone levels give them an unfair advantage over the rest of the field in longer events.



Christine Mboma smashed the world under-20 record twice in the span of a few hours and even charged past Thomas in the 200-meter semi-finals.



<h3 id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h3>



If Thompson-Herah wins, she will become the first woman in history to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter gold in back-to-back Olympics games. She had won gold in both events at the Rio 2016 Olympics.



<h3 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



World Athletics&#8217; ruling against Mboma and Masilingi in the 400 meters only applies to races between 400-meters and a mile as the governing body argues it gives them an unfair advantage over other female athletes. The same rules have sidelined double Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya of South Africa in the 800 meters event. The world athletic body has been called out for its stance being in direct opposition to efforts to make athletics more inclusive. But Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/sports/olympics/track-field.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">insisted</a>&nbsp;that the rule is in place to maintain the “integrity of the sport.”



<h3 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-track-and-field-shaunae-miller-elaine-thompson-sports-3e29b4cf0394f204fbcde928ad2c9f03" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Teenagers make 200 final in Olympic testosterone controversy</a>&nbsp;(Associated Press)



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/31/elaine-thompson-herah-takes-stunning-olympic-gold-in-womens-100m" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elaine Thompson-Herah wins greatest 100m women’s race ever to take gold</a>&nbsp;(Guardian)



<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/08/02/womens-200-meter-olympic-final-track-and-field/5457931001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Field loaded for women&#8217;s 200-meter final at Tokyo Olympics</a>&nbsp;(USA Today)



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/30/sports/olympics/track-field.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Track and Field Aimed for Inclusion. Instead It Sidelined Star Athletes.</a> (New York Times)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

Athletics – Olympics: Day 10

Tokyo Olympics: Star-Studded Line Up Takes Center Stage In Women’s 200m Final Amid Testosterone Controversy

jpeeeggg

THE 100th ISSUE: 100 Innovations, Inventions & Icons From Africa

Olympic gold medalist runner Caster Semenya must lower her testosterone levels if she wants to defend her 800 meter title in Tokyo next year, a Swiss court <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://apnews.com/bd69bc7ea983d9a1959813402d3d3472" target="_blank">ruled</a> Tuesday, bringing an end to Semenya’s long legal battle against her sport’s governing body that brought controversy and heated debate to the role hormones play in athletic performance.



<h4>KEY FACTS</h4>



Semenya, who hails from South Africa, identifies as female and was judged to be female at birth, but has naturally higher levels of testosterone and XY chromosomes due to being born with a sex development disorder.



Tuesday’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bd69bc7ea983d9a1959813402d3d3472" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruling</a>&nbsp;by Switzerland’s supreme court dismissed Semenya’s appeal of a 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/sports/caster-semenya-loses.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decision</a>&nbsp;that ordered her—and athletes with similar hormonal conditions—to suppress testosterone levels in order to compete.



Testosterone levels can be lowered either through medication or surgery, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/bd69bc7ea983d9a1959813402d3d3472" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Associated Press</a>.



The International Association for Athletics Federation, the governing body for running,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/sports/caster-semenya-loses.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maintains</a>&nbsp;that athletes with “differences of sexual development,” and more specifically female athletes with higher levels of testosterone, have an advantage in some events due to additional muscle mass, more strength and the ability to take in more oxygen. &nbsp;



“I am very disappointed by this ruling, but refuse to let World Athletics drug me or stop me from being who I am,” Semenya said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-za/news/8ee6fb77/caster-semenya-remains-determined-to-fight-for-human-rights" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>, adding, “I will continue to fight for the human rights of female athletes, both on the track and off the track, until we can all run free the way we were born.”



In its ruling, Switzerland’s supreme court said the country’s Court of Arbitration for Sport was allowed to “uphold the conditions of participation issued for female athletes” with differences in sexual development “in order to guarantee fair competition for certain running disciplines in female athletics.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center">“This decision is a call to action–as a society, we cannot allow a sports federation to override the most fundamental of human rights,” <cite>said lawyer Dorothee Schramm, who led Semenya’s appeal, in a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en-za/news/8ee6fb77/caster-semenya-remains-determined-to-fight-for-human-rights" target="_blank">statement</a>.</cite></blockquote>



<h4>CHIEF CRITIC</h4>



Athletics South Africa, the country’s governing body for running that backs Semenya. The group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/caster-semenya-can-t-compete-her-best-olympics-events-without-n1000531" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously called</a>&nbsp;the IAAF’s testosterone policy “discriminatory, unnecessary, unreliable and disproportionate.”



<h4>KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Semenya’s biology has been the subject of controversy since she burst onto the international running scene in 2009. Her victories at the time raised questions about her sex, leading the IAAF to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/aug/23/caster-semenya-athletics-gender" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">perform</a>&nbsp;a sex verification test on her. She was also forced to take medication to reduce her testosterone in order to continue competing. In 2011, the IAAF announced new rules that would tighten the upper limits of testosterone levels in female athletes. The rule was dropped in 2015 when Indian sprinter Dutee Chand&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/sports/international/dutee-chand-female-sprinter-with-high-male-hormone-level-wins-right-to-compete.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">convinced</a>&nbsp;Switzerland’s Court of Arbitration for Sport that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that elevated testosterone levels increased athletic performance. Then, in 2018, the IAAF&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/25/iaaf-testosterone-rules-caster-semenya" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;the policy upheld in Tuesday’s court decision, which applies to runners in three events, and narrow enough for critics to say it was designed to target Semenya.&nbsp;



<h4>TANGENT</h4>



Transgender athletes have been keeping tabs on Semenya’s case.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-glorious-victories-of-trans-athletes-are-shaking-up-sports/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Similar arguments</a>&nbsp;are made about transgender athletes having an advantage over biological women. Different governing organizations have different policies, as well. The NCAA, for example, allows transgender women to compete on women’s teams after completing a year of hormone suppression treatment. But for the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which oversees&nbsp;<a href="https://resources.wftda.org/womens-flat-track-derby-association-statement-about-gender/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roller derby</a>, “an individual who identifies as a trans woman, intersex woman, and/or gender expansive” can compete on women’s teams.



<h4>FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/sports/caster-semenya-loses.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caster Semenya Loses Case to Compete as a Woman in All Races</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://apnews.com/bd69bc7ea983d9a1959813402d3d3472" target="_blank">Semenya loses at Swiss supreme court over testosterone rules</a> (Associated Press)



-Lisette Voytko, Forbes Staff

Athletics – Commonwealth Games Day 9

Caster Semenya Can’t Defend Olympic Title Unless She Lowers Testosterone, Court Rules

Early last year the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iaaf.org/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">International Association of Athletics Federations</a>(IAAF) introduced regulations requiring South African 800m Olympic champion&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/caster-semenya" target="_blank">Caster Semenya</a>&nbsp;– and other middle distance runners with differences of sex development – to lower their naturally high levels of testosterone.



In February 2019 Semenya’s legal team argued that the policy was invalid. But in May the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/en/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Court of Arbitration for Sport</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/may/01/caster-semenya-loses-landmark-legal-case-iaaf-athletics">ruled</a>&nbsp;that discrimination in sport is legal provided it is justified.



The way in which the IAAF has gone about dealing with Semenya raises serious legal and ethical concerns. And Semenya isn’t the only athlete involved. This is an issue that goes beyond just the difference of sex development. It goes to the fundamental root of human dignity, of privacy of every athlete who participates at the World Championships.



There are ethical concerns about the way in which the research was conducted that led to the decision. The legal concerns revolve around serious fundamental rights concerns, in particular in the way a number of female athletes have been treated.



In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sportsandtaxation.com/2017/01/you-can-play-as-long-as-you-dont-win-legal-perspectives-on-the-regulations-pertaining-to-the-participation-of-women-with-hyperandrogenism-in-womens-athletics/">paper</a>&nbsp;I wrote two years ago – “You can play as long as you don’t win: Legal perspectives on the regulations pertaining to the participation of women with hyperandrogenism in women’s athletics” – I explored the big ethical and legal problems I believe are involved in Semenya’s case, as well as those of dozens of other women.



My view is that some women are being singled out because they are different. If Semenya looked different, if she was a blonde bombshell or if she didn’t win, we wouldn’t be having this debate today.



My big concern is that if this ruling by the Court for Arbitration in Sport remains unchallenged, this way of thinking and behaving might filter into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">International Olympic Committee</a>, the overarching body that regulates sport. That, in turn, will affect all its affiliations. These include the national Olympic committees and international federations like the IAAF and Fifa and the national associations under them.



That’s fundamentally wrong.



<h2>The ethics question</h2>



The first problem lies in the way in which the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">World Anti-Doping Authority</a>&nbsp;has behaved. The World Anti-Doping Authority and national anti-doping authorities – which operate parallel to the other sporting bodies – are supposed to be independent. The World Anti-Doping Authority should be a completely separate, independent body that checks on the sports federations to ensure they enforce anti-doping measures uniformly and in a correct manner.



In reality, this isn’t the case.



This is how it works. At an event like the World Athletic Championships, it will be responsible for conducting the anti-doping tests. It will set up its own anti-doping control stations; collect the samples.



As part of the process athletes who enter agreements to participate in World Athletic Championships will also give consent to the World Anti-Doping Authority to conduct these tests. Part of that consent is also that the agency will, in terms of the rules, keep these samples for up to 10 years. They can re-test later for substances but they can also conduct research on anti-doping matters.



That’s important.



What happened in practice was that in 2011 and 2013 the IAAF instructed athletes to give both urine and blood samples. The reason given was that they were developing what is called a biological passport. This is an athlete’s biological profile that’s developed over a period of time. A sudden anomaly could indicate that there’s a doping or some other issue.



The problem is that IAAF passed these samples onto its medical team, the medical commission, which conducted its own research to determine the hormone levels of the athletes.



The argument being forwarded by the IAAF is that this is about doping. But the World Anti-Doping Agency ruled that the regulations on hyper-androgenism or difference of sex development have nothing to do with anti-doping.



This raises the question: if biological samples that have been collected for one purpose by one entity are passed onto another entity to do research for which consent has not been given, is this a lawful use of that sample?



The basis of modern ethical biological research and medical treatment is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Declaration of Helsinki</a>. Though not an internationally legally binding document, it’s nevertheless set the standard for a lot of countries, including South Africa, that have developed their own biomedical laws.



In South Korea – where the tests took place – the Helsinki Declaration led to the adoption of the Bioethics and Safety Act. This states that to conduct any form of biomedical research you need the informed consent of the individuals. But none of the athletes – and I have spoken to a number who have participated at these championships – have been informed these samples could be used on hormone research.



Lots of countries have similar rules. For example Monaco, where the IAAF is based, has a strong requirement that there must be proper, informed consent.



One thing all of these laws have in common is that the consent can be withdrawn at any stage and there should be no penalty for that. And it’s a criminal offence if one does not obtain the proper, informed consent.



This issue has been raised repeatedly with the IAAF throughout the process. But to no avail.



I’m still to see that there is a single form or indication that any athlete has been properly informed of the nature of the research conducted, who will conduct the research, what the possible consequences are, what it means for the athlete and how their identity is being protected in the process.



The IAAF has not been able to produce any of this. And the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed these arguments and considered all the evidence that had been collected in spite of the lack of informed consent.



<h4>Human rights</h4>



The second major issue relates to massive human rights concerns.



The rights I’m referring to are set out in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">European Convention on Human Rights</a>, in particular Articles 2 and 8.



Let me begin with Article 8 which I believe should have been applied and was in fact raised before the court. It provides that everyone has the right to respect for private and family life. In the case of&nbsp;<a href="https://swarb.co.uk/solomakhin-v-ukraine-echr-15-mar-2012/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Solomakhin v Ukraine</a>, for example, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that any compulsory medical intervention, even if it was of a minor importance, constituted an interference with this right.



Effectively coercing a healthy athlete into taking hormone treatment is certainly a compulsory medical intervention. They can argue that she has the choice. But there is no choice.



For its part, Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine provides that the interest of welfare of each human being takes precedence over the interest of society.



Even the IAAF’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iaaf.org/about-iaaf/documents/constitution">constitution</a>, in article 3, gives a commitment to human rights with ethical values, while the Olympic Charter is against any form of discrimination and is for the promotion of women, equality of men and women, sport for all.



These have all been laid bare as empty promises.



-Steve Cornelius; Professor of Private Law, University of Pretoria



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caster1

Caster Semenya: The Legal And Ethical Issues That Should Concern Us All

Caster Semenya has released a list of experts she will call in her appeal hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this week in her fight against regulations aimed at lowering the testosterone levels of hyperandrogenic athletes like her. 



The South African 800-metres double Olympic champion on Monday expressed her disappointment after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) revealed the names of their five witnesses for the proceedings in Lausserne.



She called it a breach of confidentiality rules ahead of a five-day appeal that could have far reaching consequences for sport. The IAAF deny any wrong-doing.



She will call on a range of experts from various fields, and used the announcement of their names, through her lawyers, to reiterate her stance on the IAAF’s proposed regulations.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="‘From Zero to Hero’: The Queen Of The 800 meters Caster Semenya (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/12/27/from-zero-to-hero-the-queen-of-the-800-meters-caster-semenya/" target="_blank">‘From Zero to Hero’: The Queen Of The 800 meters Caster Semenya</a>



“The IAAF regulations do not empower anyone,” the statement said. “Rather, they represent yet another flawed and hurtful attempt to police the sex of female athletes.



“Ms Semenya’s courage and perseverance in her fight to run free is an inspiration to young athletes in her home country of South Africa and around the globe.”



The IAAF regulations stipulate that women with elevated testosterone take medication to reduce their level before being allowed to compete, but only in the middle-distance events of between 400- and 1500-metres where it is claimed the advantage is most felt.



IAAF President Sebastian Coe told reporters on Monday that the regulations are aimed at leveling the field between hyperandrogenic athletes and those with normal levels of testosterone.



The IAAF’s previous attempts to regulate testosterone in female athletes fell foul of a CAS ruling in 2015 following an appeal on behalf of Indian Dutee Chand, who had been banned from competing because of her high levels.



CAS claimed in their judgment that the IAAF had not provided sufficient evidence that hyperandrogenic athletes gained a significant advantage due to their testosterone count.



A verdict could take up to a month, according to CAS.



The experts who will testify in support of Semenya are listed as:



<ul><li>Prof Veronica Gomez-Lobo, Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgetown University and the Director of the DSD (Differences of Sexual Development) Clinic at the Children’s National Health System in Washington‚ DC.</li><li>Dr Alun Williams, Director of the Sports Genomics Laboratory at Manchester Metropolitan University.</li><li>Professor Eric Vilain, specialist in gender-based and endocrine genetics‚ including DSD, who has consulted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).</li><li>Professor Roger Pielke Jr, director of the Sports Governance Center at the University of Colorado.</li><li>Professor Dankmar Böhning, Chair in Medical Statistics at the University of Southampton.</li><li>Professor Richard Holt, expert in Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Southampton.</li><li>Professor Anthony C Hackney, University of North Carolina‚ with joint appointments in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science and the Department of Nutrition School of Public Health.</li></ul>



Emotional scenes as Vonn, Djokovic and Biles win Laureus Awards



<ul><li>Dr Lih-Mei Liao, clinical and health psychologist in the United Kingdom who has worked extensively with women diagnosed with a range of DSD conditions.</li><li>Dr Payoshni Mitra, teaches Sport Sociology at Birkbeck College‚ University of London and works closely with athletes with hyperandrogenism and DSD from the Southern Hemisphere.</li><li>Ashley LaBrie‚ Executive Director of AthletesCAN‚ an independent organization that represents the interests of all national team athletes in Canada. &#8211;Reuters</li></ul>



-Nick Said

RC144382DFF0

Caster Semenya Releases List Of Experts For Battle With IAAF At CAS

‘From Zero to Hero’: The Queen Of The 800 meters Caster Semenya

The gun cracked. The runner shot forward. Her breathing was normal. She soon found her rhythm as they hit the first bend. The group at the front was bunched. The woman in green and gold held steady. As they neared the 400-meter mark, she could feel the Kenyan, Janeth Jepkosgei, breathing down her neck. As the bell went for the last lap, she increased the pace but the Kenyan went with her. That’s when it happened. Two hundred meters to go; it was like a second gun exploded. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya surged forward with her long, powerful strides as she tore away from the field to win her first world 800-meter title in a remarkable time of 1:55.45—a glorious victory.
It was the 800-meter women’s final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin, and Semenya had just become the first South African to win the event.
The world was at her feet. Then the gender controversy began. Suddenly, Semenya was known for her deep voice and muscular build, not normally associated with a teenage girl, rather than her running. She was subjected to a long and public gender verification saga by world athletics. People argued over her case; petty politicians used her as a political football. Semenya was withdrawn from competition until July 2010, before she was cleared to run again—a long and painful exclusion. Many would have given up—she could have, but she refused.
<div id="attachment_806" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-806" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-806" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/124075220_10-685x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="709" />FRANCE &#8211; AUGUST 26: The 9th Athletics world championships in St Denis In Paris, France On August 26, 2003 &#8211; Maria Mutola (Moz) wins gold medal in the 800 meters. (Photo by Pool BASSIGNAC/DUCLOS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)</div>
Semenya came back to defend her title in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, and was beaten narrowly in the final straight as she came in with a time of 1:56.35—a commendable performance, considering the events leading up to the race. Now Semenya plans to go one step further—she wants gold at the Olympic Games in London.
The odds, for the first time, are stacked in her favor. Since her win in Berlin almost three years ago, she has been in contact with former Olympic Gold medallist in the 800-meters at the 2000 games, Mozambican Maria Mutola.
No stranger to gender controversy herself, although all was proved unwarranted, the 39-year-old Mutola recently replaced Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, at the end of last year. Legend has it that Mutola was caught masquerading as a man when she played in a football cup final back home in Maputo. Amid the furore, a coach spotted her running talent and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mutola dominated the two-lap race during the 1990s and into the next century. During this time, she became a seven-time world indoor gold medallist and she also added three world 800 meters gold medals to her tally.
Mutola and Semenya make a powerful team gunning for gold in July. Mutola trains the now 21-year-old prodigy in Pretoria, north of Johannesburg.
“Me and Caster have been talking since she won the World Championships in Berlin, so we’ve been in contact ever since,” she pauses with a glint of pride in her eye.
“Any time she needed advice, she would call me and then we would talk a little bit. It’s been a long-term relationship. I’ve known Caster since then, it just fell into place, so it wasn’t anything strange when she approached me and asked if I would train her.”
Since then, the duo have been specific in their targets, and Semenya recently ran her second Olympic qualifying time at a Yellow Pages Meeting in Pretoria on April 21, guaranteeing her place at the Olympics showpiece.
She ran 1:59.58 and in so doing, at high-altitude, became the first South African woman to run under two minutes on home soil in 21 years.
Now Mutola has her sights firmly set on the top honor: the Olympic gold.
“[I think] very good advice is to be in shape, to stay healthy and go to London in shape, to be able to win it.
“[Judging from] all the Olympics I have been through, it is going to take under two minutes to be able to win it. You have to produce 1:55/1:56 to be able to win the race because everyone is training for the same event—to be an Olympic champion.”
Now Semenya heads overseas to begin her final preparations by competing in Europe.
“The most important thing is to have confidence in oneself going to these European track meets. You have to be able to win over there, run good times and go to the Olympics with a lot of confidence. That is a very important thing for athletes.”
Semenya was expected to qualify sooner for the showpiece, but now that she has run the time, everything is back on track, according to Mutola as she alluded again to the gold medal.
“In terms of her preparations, I have to say it is going very well at the moment, I was a bit concerned at the beginning but I see that we are improving, we are doing the right thing. Everything is going well at the moment.
“The most important thing is for her to stay in shape and believe in herself. When she gets to the Olympic Games, anybody who qualifies for the finals has a chance of winning gold.”
Mutola believes Semenya could be the best ever. She says the world record set in 1983 by Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvílová looks set to tumble if Semenya stays on course. “I always thought she would be the one to break the world record because when she was 18, she was running 1:55’s and I think when she is about 25, and more mature, she would probably break the world record.
“If you are 18 and run a 1:55, that means that if you are 20-something, you would be able to run between 1:52 and 1:53 and that indication I see in Caster. I hope and I know she can be the one to break that world record that has been standing for a very long time.”
One thing is for sure: with the troubles of her past behind her, the Mutola-Semenya southern African team will be the hot favorite come the end of July. The history books await.

Tag: Caster Semenya

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