Caster Semenya: I am a no less of a woman because I have internal testicles
Caster Semenya insists she is no less of a woman because she was born “without a uterus and internal testicles” and is “not going to be ashamed because I am different”.
The two-time Olympic champion middle distance runner has given up on returning to the track because World Athletics demands that female competitors with differences of sexual development (DSD) take testosterone-suppressing drugs.
But Semenya has vowed to continue her legal fight to have those regulations changed – her case was this week referred to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights – and says men should not be dictating what defines a woman.
“I believe if you are a woman, you are a woman. No matter the differences you have,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“I have realised I want to live my life and fight for what I think and I believe in myself. I know I am a woman and anything that comes along with it, just accept it.
“I know I am different. I don’t care about the medical terms or what they tell me. Being born without a uterus or internal testicles. Those don’t make me less of a woman.
“Those are the differences I was born with and I will embrace them. I am not going to be ashamed because I am different. I am different and special and I feel great about it.”
Semenya, 32, won 800m gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and the 2009, 2011 and 2017 World Championships, but was dogged by controversy throughout and effectively rendered uncompetitive in 2018 when World Athletics introduced its current DSD rules.
“The importance of women’s sport is not being taken seriously and we need to take charge of our own bodies. Decide what is right for us,” the South African added.
“Not another gender deciding what we should look like. If we are woman enough or not, it is up to us. We know and believe in what is right, then why must we stop?”
While Semenya says she became aware she was “different” aged five, she added that she only found out she had internal testicles and no uterus or fallopian tubes after undergoing a gender test following her dramatic arrival on the athletics scene in 2009.
“I am a woman and have a vagina just like any other woman,” she said. “I am living a different life and I will continue living that, as that is what makes me feel good. I am not going to be somebody I am not.”