Dressed in a black sleeveless dress, controversial 800m women’s world champion Caster Semenya graced the front cover of a lifestyle magazine in her native South Africa on Tuesday under the headline, “Wow, look at Caster now!”
Semenya, whose gender was called into question last month at the world athletics championships in Berlin, pulled on stilettos and several short dresses for her makeover from You magazine.
“I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses, but I never get the chance,” the 18-year-old, who wore make-up and posed with a manicured hand on her hip, told You.
Hours before her victory in the 800m final in Berlin, world athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, announced it would be testing Semenya’s gender after she improved her personal best by more than eight seconds in a year.
Semenya, who grew up in a village in northern Limpopo province, emerged from relative obscurity to easily claim the titles of African junior champion in Mauritius in July and world champion in Berlin.
The IAAF, which was slammed for publicizing the tests and has since apologized, has yet to announce the results.
Semenya’s coach, Wilfred Daniels, resigned last week, saying that while the IAAF’s treatment of Semenya was “insulting,” Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) handling of the affair had also been “atrocious.”
Daniels said Semenya had also been subjected to gender testing by the ASA, without her knowledge. The ASA has denied the allegations.
Speaking to You about the debacle, the shy sports science student with the broad shoulders and deep voice said: “I see it all as a joke; it doesn’t upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself.”
Sales of the magazine were brisk at one Johannesburg supermarket, where a teller remarked on scanning the front cover, which showed a smiling Semenya bedecked with gold jewelry reclining in a settee: “She looks better now.”
The results of Semenya’s gender verification tests are due to arrive at the IAAF any day, but the outcome is unlikely to see her stripped of her gold medal.
The tests are to determine if Semenya has a medical condition that blurs her gender and gives her an unfair advantage. The definitive outcome will be determined by the IAAF within two weeks after a team of experts analyzes the data.
IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told reporters on Tuesday that Semenya was likely to keep the medal she won by 2.45 seconds in a year-best 1 minute, 55.45 seconds.
“There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this,” Davies said. “This is not a doping case at present, so it shouldn’t be considered as one where you have a retroactive stripping of results.”
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