SEMENYA LOST

If anyone posting here was honest with themselves, none of us has even a fraction of the integrity and stength of character that Semenya has.

Consider: when she won in Berlin, she did so hours after the IAAF told her that she would have to undergo gender testing. This was after she had to undergo unspeakable indignities in SA during a medical exam, without even knowing why (if I remember the story right.) Then, when she collected her medal, she literally had to stand alone in front of the entire stadium and the entire world on the elevated podium in the stadium. Then, she had to go through the "leaks" and what can only very chartiably be called "speculation" of her condition.

Consider: after 19 months of legal wrangling, "hushed-up" and leaked reports of the most private matters, she doesn't walk away from the sport. She vowed a comeback, and she kept her word. She must have struggled with motivation, with the desire, but she found the heart in herself to overcome everything. That alone sets her apart from most athletes even at the very top of any sport. And after a series of mixed results, she did make it back to the very top.

Consider: If what Wejo and the letsrun staffer wrote, about press row cheering as she was overtaken in the home stretch, is true (- if it is then that is truly shameful, is on the same level as the comments so many people make here -) and then she went and faced that same press in the press conference, sitting next to a woman who so publicly belittled her, and handled herself so admirably, what does that say about her character?

Consider: Despite what Mr. Tucker, Wejo and others wrote here about the unlikelihood of her choosing to lose the race, and the scrutiny that would follow, I'd like to think she could take this route as a way of giving everyone a middle finger. The IAAF and SA athletics made a misery of her young life, and she has every right to send it right back at them, the media, and everyone who doubted her and abused her in such a cowardly way, in the most public way available to her. I'm not saying she did this, but in a way it would be a moral victory for her IF she did. She knew she could have won, the Russian woman could never beat her, and in my opinion "throwing" a race this way does not have to lead to questions about her integrity - rather, it can reinforce it. What better way to get back at the IAAF for what it did to her than to show them that one of it's showpieces means nothing to her?

Consider: this is someone who grew up in poverty, and somehow made it to the top of her sport, and who has shown she can handle herself in a way that transcends everything she has been through.

Someone wrote that Jenny Meadows was one of those of her peers who derided her publicy - quite the opposite was true, at least last year. Marylyn Okoro also reached out to her, as desribed on the British press. After the race in Daegu, the first people to hug her were Janeth Kipkosgei and Kenia Sinclair. If the decent ones among her peers are willing to stand by her and embrace her, that makes all the petty comments here and elsewhere that much lower.

I wish other athletes would take a public stand and shame all those who abuse Semenya. It would be amazing if someone like a Bolt or a Felix would have said publicly to the media "Those of you who cheered as Semenya lost, shame on you, I have nothing to say to people like you." I've written to Ato Boldon and Steve Cram about this too.

To be clear, this is about the principle, the way people have treated her. As Mr. Tucker said, she is not a cheat, but there is a very real question about whether it is fair for her to compete with women. There needs to be a debate about this, and Semenya can play a role in this if she chooses, but this is something that can be resolved in a way which benefits all involved in the sport. For anyone who makes this to be a bigger issue than all the other things that are unfair or not right about this sport, and condones boycotts and bans, then the best thing I can say about you is that you are misguided.

But to those who have a need to content themselves by cheering her loss, consider where that puts you on the scale of humanity.