Review by Booklist Review
Before Caster Semenya captured the spotlight as a two-time 800m Olympic gold medalist (2012, 2016) and three-time world champion, she was a tough, brash girl known in her rural South African village as a standout soccer player who could run fast. From a young age, Semenya knew she was different from other girls, and was fortunate to have a family that accepted her unconditionally. In 2009, when Caster was just 18, her life was forever upended when the IAAF (the racing governing body now known as World Athletics) subjected her to sex verification tests without her knowing consent. Only afterward did she learn she was born with a rare genetic condition known as Differences of Sex Development (DSD). (She has a vagina, but no uterus, and higher testosterone levels.) For the next decade, those who govern the sport, the media, and fellow competitors waged a battle against Semenya both on the track and in the courts. Here, for the first time, Semenya shares her perspective on the trauma and horrific treatment she endured to fulfill her dreams of reaching her potential as a female athlete and providing her family with financial support. Told with candor, Semenya's story reminds readers to treat all humans with dignity and that being different does not mean being wrong.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Semenya recounts her struggles to compete in international track-and-field events in this affecting debut memoir. Semenya was born in South Africa with a genetic condition that caused her to develop both female genitalia and high testosterone levels that gave her "more typically masculine characteristics, such as a deeper voice and fewer curves." Though she'd sometimes been mistaken for a boy growing up, she only learned of her condition in 2009, after she won her first world championship in the 800-meter race as an 18-year-old. Her physical appearance led to questions about whether she was a man, which, in turn, resulted in a battery of tests by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. Semenya was forced to take medication to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete, which had "horrible side effects," and by 2018, the IAAF adopted rules mandating low testosterone caps for eligibility in a handful of Semenya's strongest events, including the 400- and 800-meter races, a decision she challenged in human rights court. Semenya's galvanizing descriptions of being treated unfairly because of the genes she was born with are leavened with descriptions of the loving embrace of her family, especially her wife, Violet Raseboya. This chronicle of supreme resilience will resonate even with non--sports fans. Agent: Peter McGuigan, Ultra Literary. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Runner Semenya has won three world championships, two Olympic gold medals, and dozens of other victories, especially in 800-meter women's track races. For more than a decade, she's also endured racist treatment and rumors about her body. She writes here that she was assigned female at birth but was born with naturally high testosterone levels, internal testes, and no ovaries, and she lives as a woman. She describes her childhood as a girl typical for her South African village; early on, she found the most fun, meaningful activity to be running. Without much coaching or proper track shoes, she began winning races. She writes that long before being challenged at a 2009 major Berlin track meet for appearing too masculine and winning often, she was accustomed to pulling her track shorts down to show that she was a girl. For a decade after Berlin, she fought the international track organization that sought to bar her from competition unless she took testosterone-limiting drugs or underwent surgery to reduce her hormone levels. All the while, she kept winning, setting records, and fighting to compete as a woman. VERDICT A gripping, provocative book that will engage readers of titles about track, international sports, gender politics, and acceptance.--Mark Jones
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A furiously proud memoir by "the most recognizable intersex person in the world." A two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion in the women's 800 meters, professional runner Semenya, born in 1991 in a small village in the rural South African province of Limpopo, is better known for the media speculation on her gender and subsequent 2019 competition ban by the Association of Athletics Federation (now World Athletics) than for her immense talent and unparalleled success. Semenya was born with external female genitalia but also hyperandrogenism and undescended testicles. As a child, she mostly played with boys and was aware of looking "boyish," but to her close-knit community, "it really was not a big fucking deal….There are many ways to be a girl." At the age of 18, she was thrust onto the world stage when the IAAF forced her to take humiliating gender confirmation exams at the 2009 Berlin World Championships. Semenya's impatience and anger at the bureaucracy and media circus are palpable, and she candidly discusses how she has a vagina, was raised as a girl, and is now inarguably a woman. It's clear that philosophical debates about what makes a woman are beside the point to the author and that the worst part of becoming the focus of an international conversation is not the speculation, embarrassment, or attention from the paparazzi and other media; it's the lost opportunity to run fast and win. Wherever readers stand on the question of intersex women in sports, they will certainly agree with her grim summary of her experience: "I would say I was being treated like an animal, but I grew up tending to my family's livestock, and we treated them with more respect than that." Moving, inspiring testimony by a woman facing hardship merely "because of a biological condition I was born with." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
