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The former world and Olympics champion has been locked out of competition by World Athletics rules that require her to take hormone suppressants before competing
Caster Semenya’s wife has confirmed that the former Olympics and world 800m champion has not retired despite the implementation of rules that have made her participation into various competitions impossible.
Violet Raseboya, a former elite distance runner who has been married to the three-time world champion since 2015, says Semenya has not given up her athletics career just yet and is still exploring her options.
“I’m very protective of my partner and you won’t get that answer from me. You will get it from her when you see her,” Raseboya told reporters in Durban when asked about her husband’s future, as per South African outlet The Citizen.
“But don’t think that she has retired. That’s the only thing I can tell you,” added Raseboya, who coaches a group of 16 track and road runners with Semenya.
Semenya, a two-time Olympic 800m champion, hasn’t competed since she earned silver medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m finals at the Gauteng North provincial track and field championships in Pretoria in March.
Though she was in the 10,000m entry list and turned up at the SA Senior Championships in Potchefstroom, which was the day before her enforced suspension from the track, she withdrew before the race without an explanation.
While previous rules allowed her to compete against women without restrictions outside the range of distances between 400m and the 1,500m, the new World Athletics ruling enforced in April requires athletes with ‘differences of sexual development’ to take hormone suppressants in order to participate in any track and field discipline.
Semenya has previously stated that she is unwilling to take measures to reduce her natural testosterone levels, and the 32-year-old athlete will not compete in other categories after being sidelined from women’s events.
While all her previous appeals in court have ultimately failed, however, she has repeatedly insisted that she will not go down without a fight, and a potential return to court remains a possibility.
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