This is an accepted version of this page Caster Semenya OIB (born 7 January 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals[4] and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres.

[5][6][7] Following Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year.

[8][9] The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa.

[12] She has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

Individuals with 5-ARD have normal male internal structures that are not fully masculinised during the development of the reproductive system in utero, due to low levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Semenya simultaneously beat the Senior and Junior South African records held by Zelda Pretorius at 1:58.85, and Zola Budd at 2:00.90, respectively.

[40][41] In November 2009, South Africa's sports ministry issued a statement that Semenya[42] had reached an agreement with the IAAF to keep her medal and award.

[39][51] The federation also explained that the motivation for the test was not suspected cheating but a desire to determine whether she had a "rare medical condition" giving her an "unfair advantage".

He ignored a request from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the World Championships over concerns about the need to keep her medical records confidential.

[55] Prominent South African civic leaders, commentators, politicians, and activists characterised the controversy as racist, as well as an affront to Semenya's privacy and human rights.

[57] In March 2010, Semenya was denied the opportunity to compete in the local Yellow Pages Series V Track and Field event in Stellenbosch, South Africa, because the IAAF had yet to release its findings from her sex test.

[64] On 22 August 2010, running on the same track as her World Championship victory, Semenya started slowly but finished strongly, dipping under 2:00 for the first time since the controversy, while winning the ISTAF meet in Berlin.

[66] She improved her season's best to 1:58.16 at the Notturna di Milano meeting in early September and returned to South Africa to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.

[68] After the controversy of the previous year, Semenya returned to action with a moderately low profile, running only 1:58.61 at the Bislett Games as her best prior to the World Championships.

[75] In November 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency recommended Savinova and four other Russian athletes be given a lifetime ban for doping violations at the Olympics.

[82] On 16 April, Semenya became the first person to win all three of the 400 m, 800 m, and 1500 m titles at the South African National Championships, setting world leading marks of 50.74 and 1:58.45 in the first two events, and a 4:10.93 in the 1500 m, all within a nearly four-hour span of each other.

[93] In April 2018, the IAAF announced new rules effective 8 May 2019 that applied to athletes with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) that result in androgen sensitivity and testosterone levels above 5 nmol/L.

Under the new rules, these athletes would be required to take medication to lower their testosterone levels below the 5 nmol/L threshold for at least six months in order to compete in the female classification for certain events.

[94][95][96][97] In a report explaining its decision, the IAAF wrote that there was a "broad medical and scientific consensus" that athletes with high testosterone can "significantly enhance their sporting potential" due to greater muscle mass, strength, and haemoglobin levels.

[100] In September 2019, Semenya joined the South African SAFA Sasol Women's League football club JVW F.C., owned by Janine van Wyk.

Duke Law School professor and former middle-distance runner Doriane Lambelet Coleman argued that the organization's rules guaranteed a "protected space" for female athletes.

Although the CAS agreed with Semenya that the rules were discriminatory, it concluded that this discrimination was "a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving the IAAF's aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics".

[114] However, this decision was reversed in July, leaving Semenya unable to compete in World Athletics races between 400m and one mile while her appeal continued.

"[116] The court also declared that because Semenya was "free to refuse treatment to lower testosterone levels," her "guarantee of human dignity" was not violated.

[139] On 31 October 2023, Semenya's memoir, The Race to Be Myself, was published by #Merky Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House UK).

[140][141] In The Guardian, Emma John wrote that Semenya's "timely, sometimes angry memoir inspires compassion" while acknowledging that it presented mainly her side of the controversy about her running career.