THE RACE TO BE MYSELF

Author: Caster Semenya

Publisher: Jonathan Ball

Reviewer: Nancy Richards

What this book reminded me is that there is no such thing as ‘fair’ – not in love, life, war or peace, and certainly not in sport. How can it be fair that one athlete is faster, stronger, higher, or that they have a different build, from another? That one woman has a more able body than another, that one man has a louder voice, that one child is born into a wealthier family…the list is endless really. So how do you compare, how do you measure and how do you award? I suppose the difference is, not just what a person is ‘given,’ so much as how they use it. ‘From whom much is given, much is expected’ as the saying goes. So who gets to stand on the podium – the one who got more than their fair share of gifts, or the one who trained harder?

Caster or Mokgadi Semenya’s story in The Race To Be Myself contains no answers, nor hard and fast rules that everyone can abide by, and definitely not agree on. But it does make you appreciate how difficult it is for anyone to deal with being ‘different’ – whatever that may look like. If she comes across as ‘angry’ as some suggest, when you read what she had to undergo to follow her calling – sex tests, debilitating medication, the threat of gonadectomy*, the stares, being the target, the case study, the law suit – it’s hardly surprising. She’s very clear about her anger towards the treatment she received from the IAAF (International Amateur Athletics Federation), other sporting bodies and individuals. But she’s even more clear about who she is: ‘I am Caster. I will always be myself’. What she’s not: hermaphrodite. Where she comes from: Ga Masehlong in Limpopo, and what she’s been put on the planet for: to run. ‘Running makes me feel free. God and my ancestors have given me something greater.’ As Trevor Noah’s quote on the cover says, hers is ‘a tale or perseverance and poise.’ Not an easy nor a comfortable one, but it is the story of how one woman has handled, is handling, being ‘different’. Can’t say fairer than that.

*gonads are the organs that develop into ovaries or testes