South African Track Star Caster Semenya Won't Stop Fighting For Her Right To Run, Just As She Is

CASTER SEMENYA WALKS ALONG THE SIDE OF the Stanford University track in late June, stopping to take selfies with her fans, who crowd around a fence to get a glimpse of her.

- Sean Gregory

“We love you, Caster!” shouts one onlooker. A guy gives her a thumbs-up. “I can’t believe I’m this close to her,” says a woman who, like Semenya, hails from South Africa. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and triple world champion in the women’s 800 m has just won the prestigious Prefontaine Classic at Stanford, finishing the race in 1 min. 55.70 sec., the fastest 800-m time ever clocked on American soil. “When you’re great,” Semenya tells TIME while enjoying the adoration, “you’re great.”

If the global governing body for track and field had its way, however, the scene at Stanford would be a mirage. Last year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) issued new rules mandating that female athletes with “differences of sex development”—defined as the presence of XY chromosome pairings normally found in men—could not compete in women’s races from the 400 m to the mile, unless through medical intervention they lowered their natural testosterone to a level closer to what the IAAF calls the “female range.” The IAAF argues that the high levels of testosterone produced by athletes with such a genetic makeup provide them with an unfair advantage over other female athletes in these races. Semenya, who has faced scrutiny surrounding her gender for a decade and would be ineligible to run the women’s 800 m naturally under these new rules, challenged them in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which settles global sports disputes. In May, the CAS announced it was upholding the IAAF regulations; Semenya then took her case to Switzerland’s Supreme Court, which ordered a temporary suspension of the rules until it issues a decision. So Semenya ran the Prefontaine race without having to suppress her hormones, and she can compete at the world championships that begin on Sept. 27 in Doha, Qatar.