Caster Semenya has claimed she once offered to show her vagina to athletics officials in response to being accused of not being a female.
Semenya, 31, should by right be renowned as a great within her sport, having won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in London 2012 and then Rio 2016. The South African is also a three-time world champion and Commonwealth Games winner over the distance.
However, after exploding onto the scene in 2009, convincingly winning her first world title in Berlin, she had to undergo gender verification tests. Following the IAAF investigation, it was confirmed that Semenya would keep her gold medal.
The gender tests concluded the runner had internal testes, the male sexual organs which produce testosterone, and her levels of the hormone were three times that usually expected in a female. This was due to a condition called hyperandrogenism, a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength and the body’s ability to use oxygen.
And now, in an interview with HBO's Real Sports, the Pietersburg-born athlete has revealed the nature of her discussions with officials, saying: "They thought I had a d***, probably.
"I told them: ‘It’s fine. I’m a female, I don’t care. If you want to see I’m a woman, I will show you my vagina. All right?" In 2011, World Athletics then ruled that female competitors with the condition had to take medication to suppress their testosterone levels.
And Semenya described the side-effects of the measure, revealing: "It made me sick, made me gain weight, panic attacks, I don’t know if I was ever going to have a heart attack. It’s like stabbing yourself with a knife every day."
Still a teenager at the time, the star said she felt she had no option but to comply. "But I had no choice," she added. "I’m 18, I want to run, I want to make it to Olympics, that’s the only option for me.”
In 2018, the IAAF announced even more stringent measures on testosterone levels for female athletes. The regulations applied to eight different events, including Semenya's favoured three - the 400m, 800m, and 1500m.
The rules came in to place a year later and then Semenya lost an appeal to the Swiss federal tribunal to get the measures overturned. She then announced that she would try and qualify for the 200m for the Tokyo Olympics - an event that hadn't been targeted.
However, she later scrapped that plan, instead targeting the 5000m. Despite a personal best of 15:32.15, she was 22 seconds slower than the time needed.
Semenya is also a keen footballer, and in 2019 joined JVW FC. The club played in the South African SAFA Sasol Women's League, and that year won promotion to the top flight.
