Semenya home to a defiant welcome

THEY SANG, they flew flags, they danced until the floor shook beneath their feet. South Africans made a patriotic show of defiance yesterday to give Caster Semenya, the world champion athlete at the centre of a sex testing row, what was billed a “heroine’s welcome”.

Semenya, 18, looked overwhelmed by the rapturous reception but, after meeting South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, relaxed into smiles and laughter as she recalled winning the women’s 800 metres race in Berlin. Zuma attacked the world governing body for athletics for subjecting Semenya to a “gender verification test”, prompted by her physique and dramatically improved performances.

Appearing shy and awkward, Semenya simply said, “Hello, everybody,” as she was mobbed by hundreds of supporters at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport. The crowd ululated, blew plastic horns and waved placards with messages such as “Our golden girl” and “Caster you beaut!”. Travellers with luggage trolleys looked bewildered as they were caught in the melee.

Among those feting the teenager was Phomla Shezi, 24. “She is a female, she was born a female, God created her a female,” the receptionist said. “We should be appreciating what she did. She made us proud. We can be the best country in the world.”

The discourse of race and the liberation struggle, never far from the surface in South Africa, soon became indistinguishable from what had begun as a sporting controversy.

At the arrivals gate a boisterous group sang African National Congress anthems and “Wathint’u Caster, wathint umbokodo” (If you strike Caster, you strike a rock). The floor trembled as they performed the toyi-toyi, a protest dance used against police during the apartheid era.

At an airport press conference attended by her father and grandmother, Semenya was embraced by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as “my grandchild”. The ANC MP and ex-wife of former president Nelson Mandela said: “To the world out there who conducted those pseudo-tests: test our gender? They can stuff their insults, this is our little girl and nobody is going to perform any tests on her.

Led by a 10-motorbike convoy , Semenya and South Africa’s other medal winning athletes, men’s 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and long jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena, then met Zuma at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria.

Zuma made no secret of his “displeasure” at the International Association of Athletics Federations for its handling of the affair. He said: “It is one thing to seek to ascertain whether or not an athlete has an unfair advantage over others, but it is another to publicly humiliate an honest professional and competent athlete.

“We extend our support to Miss Semenya and her family during this difficult period. Continue to walk tall. We are proud of you. We love you.” The IAAF is expected to announce the results of Semenya’s sex test in about a month. Asked what he would do if the IAAF revoked the medal, Zuma said: “They’re not going to remove the gold medal. She won it. So that question does not arise.” Semenya took the microphone and, in her distinctive deep voice, smiled as she told the press conference: “I don’t know what to say. It’s pretty good to win in a good manner and bring it home. I didn’t know I could win that race for the first time in my life in the world championships seniors. I couldn’t believe it, man.

“I called [my coach] after I ran the semi-finals and he said, ‘You know girl, you can do it.‘ Before the final, he just told me, ‘You can let them lead, then last 200, kill them’.”

Officials brushed aside reports that the head coach of the South African team, Ekkart Arbeit, is a former East German coach who was accused by a female athlete of giving her so many anabolic steroids that she was forced to undergo a sex-change operation and live the rest of her life as a man.

Chuene said: “Arbeit was not in the picture. Arbeit does not work with these girls. Arbeit was never part and parcel of this little girl, so there was no way Arbeit was going to be injecting her.” He failed to respond to claims that tests carried out before the world championships showed Semenya’s testosterone level to be three times higher than those normally expected in a female sample. The results were believed to have contributed to the IAAF’s request for a sex test.

Chuene said the best judges of Semenya’s sex were her mother and father. “The only scientist I know, the only scientist I believe in is the parents of the child. Show me a scientist who knows her better than her mother who raised her for 18 years.” He appealed for privacy for Semenya, saying she wanted to spend some time with her family and then catch up on her work as a university student. - Guardian Service