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What is DSD runner Caster Semenya doing now? Everything you need to know about the double Olympic champion's latest career pursuits
South Africa's two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya currently runs the Masai Athletics Club in Soweto, Johannesburg. The runner hasn't officially announced her retirement from track and field but is yet to compete in the 2024 season.
Semenya first stole the spotlight in 2009 when she stormed to the 800m gold at the World Championships. However, her victory was marred by World Athletics (then IAAF) forcing the runner to undergo a sex verification test.
Post this, it was revealed that the South African was born with the intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency, leading to ‘natural testosterone levels in the typical male range’. Between 2010 and 2015, Semenya was placed on testosterone-suppressing medication by the IAAF to be allowed to run.
In 2015, following the case of ‘Dutee Chand v. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) & The International Association of Athletics Federations’, in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the IAAF policy for high natural levels of testosterone in women was suspended, leaving Caster Semenya free to compete without being on medications.
However, these rules changed in 2019. Athletes with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) were to take medication to lower their testosterone levels below the 5 nmol/L threshold for at least six months in order to compete in the female classification for certain events including Semenya’s preferred 400m, 800m, and 1,500m distances.
Post this, the South African tried switching distances in order to compete without being on medication but failed to find success in the 200m and 5,000m events, failing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
In 2022, the runner competed at the World Championships, failing to make it to the 5,000m finals. In 2023, she ran at two competitions, the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships as well as the 5000m and 10,00m at the Athletics Gauteng North Senior & Combined Track & Field Provincial Championships. She finished fourth at the Cross Country Championships and took silver in both the events at the Gauteng Provincial Championships.
Outside of running herself, Caster Semenya now guides upcoming track stars at the Masai Athletics Club she runs alongside her wife, Violet Raseboya. Speaking of her target for the Masai AC, the former World Champion told Dazed Digital in 2021:
"To be consistent in each and everything we do, to make sure our infrastructure is well-run and that we develop to big numbers so we are able to produce great future athletes and leaders. We hope to set an example to those from disadvantaged communities so they can look up to Masai AC and say, ‘Because of Masai AC I was able to achieve this and that’, and ‘I am who I am because of Masai AC’. To maintain the work we are doing, it is not to be competitive. Then we live up to our words."
In late 2023, Semenya released a memoir titled 'The Race To Be Myself' which chronicled her journey from running in her village as a young girl to winning the 2009 World Championships and facing intense scrutiny from the media.
Caster Semenya joins broadcasting team for Paris Olympics 2024
While Caster Semenya will not be competing at the Paris Olympics, she will be joining the marquee event as a broadcaster. Ahead of the Games, television channel SuperSport announced the runner as a track and field analyst.
Speaking in a press release on making her debut as a broadcaster, the South African said:
"I’m very excited to join the SuperSport family and share my knowledge with viewers. I’m looking forward to seeing how Team South Africa does and hopefully we can bring a few medals home."
At the ongoing Paris Olympics, Caster Semenya is joined in her broadcasting by fellow two-time Olympic gold medalist and veteran swimmer Penny Heyns.
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