Champion of Mettle

I asked some teen athletes today how they’d handle the situation described in yesterday’s blog post concerning Caster Semenya. She’s the newly crowned South African 800 World Champion suspected to possibly be…a “he”. Semenya is undergoing gender testing to confirm that she is indeed a female eligible for competition in an all-female sport.

There were two boys and two girls training today and the question posed to them was, “If you were(are) a girl, a world champion runner and suspected of being a male, would you accept a mandate to undergo a gender test and its humiliation or forfeit your medal?” Three of the athletes answered that they would ditch the pride and accept the testing because it’s not worth it to lose what they’ve worked so hard for due to stupid pride. Point taken. The one dissenting opinion said he wouldn’t accept the gender test. He said, essentially, “If I was her [Semenya] I wouldn’t take the gender test because I know who I am. The medal doesn’t make me a champion.  I’m a girl and I’m a champion with or without the medal.” That was from a 16-year old.

Daaaaaang. I was thinking man, we need to ask young people provocative questions more often. Both perspectives were extremely valuable and indicative of the kind of character we want replicated in athletes. The prevailing and operative principle I saw in their comments was that “Champion” is an earned, but intangible quality. It transcends what governing bodies have to do in the interest of fairness. But while nothing can take away the satisfaction of being the most dominant athlete in your sport, the opportunity to earn a living can be taken away. So consider the next question. If you’re Semenya’s family do you negotiate the hoops to keep yourself in competition and perhaps launch yourself into a stardom that could change the financial infrastructure of the ones you love? Or, do you stick to your guns and risk having your financial ship sail into the night?