SA Rocks

Sadly the two aren’t related. Caster captured gold at the IAAF World Championship but it was the IAAF’s gender investigation of Caster Semenya that has captured headlines.

It’s been a few days since Caster took the gold and I’ve held off on blogging about it for various reasons. Firstly people initially thought it humorous what was happening to Semenya, but I wasn’t convinced. Secondly I was trying to suss out the situation and finally I wanted to congratulate Semenya without the hype of her gender case being prominent.

So here’s to Caster Semenya, the First Lady of Sport in South Africa – as one newspaper rightfully put it.

Many articles and opinions are being written about Semenya, her gold medal, her rise to the forefront of her field and, of course, her gender. But let me say that I am proud to say that Caster Semenya is South African and brought us a gold medal this year. She deserves praise for this act.

But let me also make it clear that I was once a sprinter of short and medium distances (100m, 200m, 400m and relays) and I find it very difficult to understand a 6 second shave off her previous times to take her to the leading time in the 800m race this year. All this in a very short period of time.

I do have an alternate thought to those who jumped to the gender issue; what if Semenya, for the first time in her gifted life, actually received proper training this year. Not from a school teacher or a regional coach but from a professional. I firmly believe that it is within the realm of possibility that a person can take 6 seconds of their time if their initial time was nowhere near one that proper training can entice.

Personally I will be absolutely dumbfounded if Semenya turns out to be male. In fact I am almost certainly willing to say that She, is a She. But if it happens, it happens and we can try to cross that bridge when it comes tumbling down.

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It’s not often that I fell old or out of touch. But I think that I might be.

I have a cousin who is going on 17 years old. She is in touch with life, she is mature and knows about the world around her. She knows about the past (apartheid) and all that jazz – as she would say. But she doesn’t live it.

What she does is live, with everything, altogether, all the time. No questions, analysing, deep thought about the past and the implications of her relationships with that in mind.

While I sit here blogging and debating the life that I live here in SA, she is living it. She lives it to its full extent. Black friends, white friends, male, female, humans. Altogether everyone collectively makes up a part of her life. It’s not about race.

Browsing through her Facebook photos (I wasn’t stalking her I swear). I found myself thinking that I was out of touch. Why? Because she is surrounded by a multitude of people of every race, age, creed and background. It’s all the same to her and her mates. There is no bias one way or the other. They are all just living.

Then I thought about my life here and realised that I am somewhat trapped in the predisposition of my recent past and the extended past of my relatives and readings in Politics class. I am not race conscious nor am a racist but I don’t think I am a race-free thinker. I am still bound by the ideologies that I have been taught about. Whether I am actively denouncing the past or actively getting rid of it in my mind. I am still apart of it.

My point? I think I am still debating things while there are those that are living. Simple.

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