POSTED: July 20th 2010

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JOHN GOODBODY: Semenya return raises new questions out on the track

THE JOHN GOODBODY COLUMN / An authoritative and exclusive series from Sports Features Communications

LONDON, Jul 20: Will Caster Semenya return to the level  she displayed last year when she unexpectedly broke through to win the world 800 metres title, outclassing the rest of the field, and immediately making her an early favourite to take the Olympic title in London  in 2012? 

The South African athlete’s return to the track has probably been the most talked-about event in Olympic sports this year, even ahead of the 100 metres victory of Usain Bolt over his perennial rival Asafa Powell in Paris last Friday.

A day earlier, in Finland, Semenya began her comeback after nearly a year in the sporting wilderness, since the World Championships last August, when she was the subject of speculation about her gender.

Finally, this month the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) cleared her to run and her comeback was deliberately held in the small Finnish town of Lappeenranta so that the world’s media might not gather in huge numbers.

However, enough were present to record the fact that the South African had returned successfully, although her time of 2min 04.22sec was almost nine seconds slower than when she took the 2009 world title. On Sunday, she was quicker, winning a race in Helsinki in 2min 02.42sec.

Semenya seems slimmer and less powerfully built than in 2009, when the IAAF asked the South African team to withdraw her from their team after initial gender tests, only for them to refuse and for her to be subjected to such humiliation. In the intervening 11 months, it is widely believed she has undergone treatment for an inter-sex condition.

Slow start

Now the question is whether any treatment she has undergone will adversely affect her performances in future. The times so far this year may not be significant. After all, she began slowly last year and, in any case, has been unable to concentrate fully on athletics in the last year, while the controversy has raged around her.

Athletics South Africa knew that Semenya was not properly fit even before the two races in Finland because it left her out of the national team for forthcoming African Championships.

Her main target this year would appear to be the Commonwealth Games in October. By then we should have a better idea of whether she can recapture her form of 2009 or even surpass it. After all she is still only 19 and inexperienced  in the sport.

The IAAF says that in the last five years, there have been eight intersex cases and four athletes have been asked to retire.

Professor Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the International Olympic Committee Medical Commissioin, wants countries such as Britain or in Scandinavia to establish a global centre for intersex cases, saying “We have a moral and ethical responsibility to help. We have to make sure the person is correctly diagnosed and treated.”

If Semenya does return to her previous standard, one wonders whether any of Semenya’s rivals will question her eligibility, however much those rivals and other people will sympathise with the plight of someone whose personal situation has been subjected to such exposure.

** JOHN GOODBODY covered the 2008 Olympics for The Sunday Times, his 11th successive Summer Games and is the author of the audio book A History of the Olympics, read by Barry Davies, the BBC commentator. He was Sports News Correspondent of The Times 1986-2007, for whom he received journalistic awards in all three decades on the paper, including Sports Reporter of The Year in 2001.

Keywords · John Goodbody · Semenya · IAAF · Athletics South Africa · London 2012

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