Some 1,000 fans yesterday sang and danced at the airport in support of Caster Semenya as the runner, who is undergoing gender testing after her 800m win at the world championships, returned home to South Africa.
Semenya arrived in Johannesburg on a flight from Germany with other members of the South African team after competing in Berlin. The 18-year-old, dressed in her team tracksuit with her gold medal around her neck, was brought to a stage set up in the parking lot.
“Hi, everybody,” Semenya told the roaring crowd of fans.
PHOTO: AP
Standing in a row with the other South African medalists, she gave a thumbs-up sign and waved to people she recognized in the crowd.
Semenya was also welcomed home by her parents, siblings and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.
“We are here to tell the whole world how proud we are of our little girl,” Madikizela-Mandela told the cheering crowd of fans. “They can write what they like — we are proud of her.”
Semenya’s victory came after world athletics officials said they were conducting gender tests after questions arose about her muscular build and deep voice.
South Africans have embraced her achievement, despite the questions. A homemade poster held by a fan at the airport declared Semenya “our first lady of sport.” Semenya is not accused of trying to cheat, but of perhaps unknowingly having a medical condition that blurs her gender and gives her an unfair advantage over other female runners.
Fans organized by women’s rights groups and political groups, school sports teams, and some who came on their own, ringed the balcony overlooking the arrivals hall. Others danced, sang or blew the plastic horns known as vuvuzelas more commonly seen at soccer matches.
Yvonne Maake, a 21-year-old holding a mini vuvuzela and wearing a yellow Team South Africa jersey, said she came with her family from nearby Tembisa “to welcome our champion, Caster. We want to show her support and that we love her, so she can be proud.”
Sewela Mabusela, an education specialist from the University of Zululand, was on her way to Belfast, and was glad her trip coincided with Semenya’s return. She balanced on a stack of luggage on a trolley to get a better view.
“I want to see her, I want to hear how she feels,” Mabusela, 40, said. “I want to see interviews with her so she can tell her side of the story about what happened.”
The IAAF, track and field’s governing body, will decide Semenya’s case according to whether her “conditions ... accord no advantage over other females” after consulting a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and a gender expert.
Her genes and physiology as well as how she sees herself and how she is seen by her community could play a role in their determination.
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