World Class Athlete on Suicide Watch: A Nation’s Shame
September 22, 2009 · By Jonathan McLeod
Caster Semenya, the South African runner at the centre of a gender dispute, has been placed on suicide watch, according to a report in the Star newspaper in South Africa.
She doesn’t deserve what happened to her, especially in light of this:
[Athletics South Africa president Leonard] Chuene said that despite medical advice and a request from the IAAF, he refused to withdraw Semenya from the race because there were no results yet from the tests.
Ignore the pleas from Athletics South Africa. It might be true that they did not know that Semenya was a hermaphrodite, but they knew something was up. Unless they are monumentally stupid, they knew something was up. The IAAF doesn’t ask you, for no good reason, to withdraw an athlete whose gender is in dispute. Mr. Cheune (and anyone else in the ASA involved in this) just didn’t care. They didn’t care about this woman, and they didn’t care what they might do to her.* They wanted their gold. What’s a woman’s life weighed against the national pride of winning gold.
Even now they suggest that Semenya may still get to keep her medal, because she wasn’t trying to fool anyone. Even now, they’re worried about that blasted medal.
This woman’s life might be effectively over, but that’s okay; the national pride of a gold medal will live on forever.
*Knowing the nature of the internet, I know that there will be people who want to pounce and start objecting to the use of the word ‘woman’. Ms. Semenya spent her life as a woman. She competed as a woman. Dare I say it, she was used as women have been for many many years: for the glory of men. She deserves that designation. She deserves that compassion.
A good point. She did not belong there but she wasn’t the person that put her there. Tragic is what it is. She/He did her/his best and will now get seriously crapped on.
Not neat
Well said. Powerful post, Jon. That you have written this–especially the last paragraph–makes me proud to be your friend.
Thanks Richard. That means a lot.
Pat, I must heartily object to your confluence of pronouns. SHE, Semenya, is a WOMAN. Let us not start splitting hairs and referring to HER as anything but a woman. She is a woman who was, as my husband put it so well, used for the glory of men. To suggest that she is anything but a woman is simply offensive.
This scandal surrounding Semenya has caused a lot of discussion about what is “fair”, and how it is not “fair” to have intersexed women competing alongside those who are not intersexed. It is entirely devastating that very few people seem interested in discussing the complete lack of fairness which was visited upon Caster Semenya.
I think her right to privacy was violated with this but, what could have been done differently? She was cast into the world spotlight by a sporting body frothing at the mouth for a gold medal.
Even if the story were not leaked, and the results became public in such a sensational way…it would have eventually came out because she would not be permitted to compete in future events. Given the speculation about her gender, it would have been the same.
I think that the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of athletics south Africa for pushing this woman into the spotlight without a care for her welfare.
RD, you’re right that responsibility lies with ASA, however, if she had been pulled from the event as the IAAF had recommended, there might have been a bit of buzz about why, but it would have been quickly forgotten. I don’t think, as a general rule, people are that interested in a South African 800 metre runner. Whatever stories might have come out, it would not have become the media storm that it has.