REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
After a gender-testing controversy, South African runner Caster Semenya is back, and dominating the women’s races. But not everyone is happy with her comeback.
Several of her competitors expressed sympathy for her personal ordeal, but frustration at competing against a woman who can sometimes seem too fast for her gender, the Telegraph reports. These athletes feel their own rights have been ignored by allowing Semenya to return so quickly; she did not compete for 11 months after being ordered to take gender tests.
Canadian runner Diane Cummins said that she and others felt that Semenya was just too powerful to run in a women’s race, as she beats them with seemingly little effort. The gender issue complicates things, she said:
“Even if she is a female, she’s on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition from what I understand of hormone testing. So, from that perspective, most of us just feel that we are literally running against a man.”
Despite these objections, Semenya is well on her way to break world records. Some say she will steal the spotlight of the top male in the field, Usain Bolt. (via Telegraph)