Semenya says she cannot forgive any national or international bodies for troubles she faced throughout career.
Caster Semenya during a hearing at the European Court of Human Rights. Picture: Frederick Florin/AFP
Former Olympic champion Caster Semenya will not join the administrations of any organisation related to athletics.
She says she cannot forgive any national or international bodies for the troubles she faced throughout her career.
Semenya rules out joining athletics administration
With Athletics South Africa (ASA) embroiled in multiple controversies and World Athletics having told the federation it needs to clean up its house, calls are being made for new faces to get involved at board level ahead of ASA elections later this year.
But Semenya said on Tuesday she would not work with people who “stabbed me in the back”.
“I don’t want to be in a space where I need to answer to someone,” Semenya said on the sidelines of the Spar Grand Prix road running awards in Johannesburg.
“I want to fix my own ship. I have Masai Athletics Club and the Caster Semenya Foundation, which is my priority
“When it comes to national and international leadership at the moment, I don’t see myself working with snakes. I’ve been betrayed so many times by the very same people.
“I’m talking just for myself, but I have no interest in any position in any organisation.”
ASA widely criticised for way it handled controversial emergence
ASA was widely criticised for the way it handled Semenya’s controversial emergence on the global circuit as a teenager, with many suggesting administrators at the time had not done enough to protect her when questions were raised about her sex after she won the world 800m title in 2009 at the age of 18.
But ASA supported Semenya in the lengthy court battles she faced against World Athletics for much of her elite career.
It attempted to overturn rules instituted by the global governing body which prevented athletes with differences of sexual development from competing in women’s events.
World Athletics repeatedly sidelined Semenya due to gender rules, insisting she take hormone suppressants to compete against women.
She ultimately called time on her career in 2019, when she was banned from competing for the second time in her favoured middle-distance events.
Semenya now coaches and mentors a large group of athletes in Pretoria, including some of the country’s top distance runners, alongside her wife Violet Semenya.
