The silent return of Caster Semenya and the dark future of intersex athletes

• Report Semenya's "insurmountable advantage" that determines the future of the sport

"No, no. No interviews, sorry."

Caster Semenya

is at the World Cup in Eugene.

He's there because he's on the entry list, because he's walking around the University of Oregon campus, and because some candid journalist tried to ask him a few questions during his walk.

But it's as if he wasn't there.

In the 5,000 meters, one of the few distances that allows him to run, he has qualified thanks to the losses of others, he has the third worst time and it is most likely that next morning (01:25 a.m.) he will be eliminated in the previous round.

Somehow, she is to be.

Or because not being there would be accepting that those above, they, the bad guys, have won.

Remember: Semenya is intersex, a woman with XY chromosomes, her testosterone levels are sky high.

And in April 2018 the International Athletics Federation decreed a rule against him.

In practice she was banned from competing.

And she was only left with two options: either take medication to reduce her testosterone or forget about the 400, 800 and 1,500 meter races, that is, the distances in which she was twice Olympic champion and three times world champion.

She tried the first, felt really bad, and opted for the second, not without a fight.

While she tested it in the background, an impossible mission for her physique, she went through all the possible courts until she reached the last one: the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg where her case has been parked.

They say that this year there will be a sentence.

Maybe the next.

Who knows.

It doesn't matter either.

At 31 years old, no court will save his career.

But he could help others, for whom Semenya fights;

and

from Burundi,

and

from Namibia and so many, many.

In fact, a legal argument of Semenya is precisely that: that there are many.

According to a study by the activist association interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, at least 1.7% of the world's population has intersex characteristics, so banning their participation in sports events is more or less the same as banning redheads.

It's a good point of view.

The problem is that it doesn't work, or at least it hasn't worked yet.

No court has yet ruled in favor of Semenya and things are only getting worse for her and intersex people like her.

After the decision of the International Rugby Federation and the International Swimming Federation to prevent the participation of transsexual women, the International Athletics Federation announced that it is preparing a similar regulation and, according to sources close to the process, it will include to intersex.

In a few months Semenya could be banned from running in any event, not just those that go from 400 to 1,500 meters.

For now, she takes advantage of the fact that the door is still ajar.

After the birth of her second daughter,

, and the most personal interview ever granted, in May, for HBO, where she confessed that she offered to show her vagina to the judges of the International Federation and that the testosterone medication caused her tachycardia, Semenya is at the World Cup in Eugene.

She doesn't make noise, she is out of the media spotlight, only some candid journalist stops her when she walks around the campus of the University of Oregon.

But she is.

Those above, they, the bad guys, have not won or, at least, not completely.

"No, no. No interviews, sorry."

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