Semenya under the spotlight

• Semenya speaks out on her gender
• After Semenya won the 2009 world title as a 19-year-old, tests reportedly revealed that she was hyperandrogenous, resulting in her body producing an abnormally high amount of testosterone

South African Olympic champion Semenya granted a rare interview to South Africa’s SuperSport TV channel this month expressing her frustration at continually having her gender questioned.

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

“I don’t understand when you say I have an advantage because I am a woman,” she said. “When I pee, I pee like a woman. I don’t understand when you say I’m a man or I have a deep voice. I know I’m a female so there’s no question for me.

“I have to find a way to deflect (the questioning of her gender), so instead of allowing it to all be negative, I turn it into a positive. My family’s support system is fantastic.”

After Semenya won the 2009 world title as a 19-year-old, tests reportedly revealed that she was hyperandrogenous, resulting in her body producing an abnormally high amount of testosterone, which makes her more powerful than her rivals.

An International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule limiting the amount of naturally occurring functional testosterone for female athletes appeared to have narrowed Semenya's prospects but the IAAF’s Hyperandrogenism Regulations were suspended for two years in 2015 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing Semenya to make a comeback.

Her time of 1:55.27 in the Diamond League meeting in Monaco this month was the fastest in a women’s 800m for almost a decade and there will be an expectation that she could take down the longest-standing athletics world record set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.