I'm surprised how I'm getting like tons of emails from people thanking me for writing it. I guess lost of people had no idea what the Semenya case was truly about.
If you haven't read it, it is here:
Update: The radio bit went well. Here is rojo's recap of it
Ok. Here is the bit.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14iHGlk3ILk-HKnwqjijFdGqd3zfJyr2U/view
Having re-listened to it. I think I did very well. I was set up pretty well as they did like a 3 minute interview of Semenya and her voice is so deep it only helped set me up (even though the interviewer was talking about how she has tons of fans and what not) as I imagine someone who had never heard of Caster Semenya would be shocked by how deep her voice is. Also Semenya talked about how she was focused on inspiring the youth and next generation so I turned that on her.
So anyway, after Semenya's interview from Doha, the host just threw it to me very open ended to ask why was the decision made as it was. I thought my "opening statement" was a home run.
I told them I thought the reason behind the decision was pretty obvious but unfortunately imagined most of the listeners didn't understand it because of the misleading press coverage that refuses to say she has XY chromosomes.
"She is basically what any rational person would view as intersex..."
"..At some level, you have to draw the line between men's and women's sport, and it's my personal opinion -and ( I know) it's not politically correct or very popular (to say) but since you have to draw the line somewhere - to say that someone who has XY chromosomes shouldn't run in professional women's sports is not a human rights violation - it's a protection of female sports."
"I mean Caster herself said she is doing this to inspire the youth, to inspire the next generation, well think of all the young girls out there - if they want to be a professional athlete - and they realize the only people good in the 800 event are intersex, they are going to lose inspiration. So someone has to lose out here and is it going to be the very few people in this world that are intersex or is it going to be all of the other women that are trying to be great in the 800? Unfortunately I think it should be Semenya who loses out here."
I then asked the host if he knew that Semenya was XY as I imagine he didn't as it hasn't been reported. He admitted he didn't know that until he did some research (which was probably him reading the bullet points I emailed them that I'd be focusing on) right before the interview.
I then talked about how sports don't classify by arm length or height but they do by sex.
"We do classify on sex and if we didn't there would no professional women's sports. 50% of the population would not chance to really be elite," and then I talked about how I wasn't a very good athlete - 4th best on the team as a senior in HS - but if I was allowed to compete as a woman I would have been an Olympic medal contender.
They then brought on some professor who just kept saying things that made little sense and weren't what we were talking about. SHe would just go on and on with these really long statements that didn't make much sense before the host would get tired and interrupt her and let me talk. Her accent was very strong and the host couldn't understand her early on at all.
At one point, I asked the guest my knockout question. Do you believe we have to draw a line in professional sport and if so where and how do we draw it?
This was her response. "YEs the line needs to be drawn so that we need to be inclusive of women like Semenya because Semenya is a woman."
The guest then called me a professor and said she wanted to hear women make the same argument the "the professor" (meaning me) has made as she's only heard from men like me or Seb Coe before adding, I guess implying that our arguments don't count beacause we aren't women impacted by the decision?
She then said this. "We need to draw a line and the line needs to be drawn to be inclusive."
I mean it's hard to respond to feelings and statements like that but I thought I did a good job. I then said, Well I guess under that logic if we are going to be inclusive that Bruce Jenner could win the Olympic men's decathlon on week 1 of the OLympics and then the Olympic women's heptathlon on week 2 if we have to be inclusive.
She then said that she doesn't believe in that and accused me of using a scare tactic.
I wish I had just said, "Where do you draw the line then? You said to be inclusive."
ANyways, I dont think the host was to impressed by her as he then called Caster Semenya genetically male.
The only point where I didn't sound great is when I said no one is saying she can't run, she can run in "the park" and was starting to add she could also run in the men' division or women's divison on meds but I got interrupted. The guest then said she'd dedicated her life to this and it's not fair to have her run in the park. She needs to run pro and the other women in the 800 can run other events.
I then got my closing statement. I'd say it was a triple
I wish I had said at that point, "Well Caster actually is fine to run her other events " but didn't say that.
But my closing statement was good.
"Look, what's more fair? Do you want to be fair to the tiny percentage of people that are intersex ? Since someone has to lose out - or do you want to be fair to all the other women that are competing - the hundreds of women that are professional track athletes. People like Britain's Lynsey Sharp - she's gotten death threats for saying I think it's unfair for someone who has XY chromosomes with super high testosterone to compete as a woman."