Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya has ruled out taking a leadership position in South African athletics, saying she has no interest in working within a system where she feels repeatedly betrayed.
The 35-year-old has dismissed the prospect of standing for election to the Athletics South Africa (ASA) board or becoming an ambassador for the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC).
SASCOC is considering a South African bid to host the 2036 or 2040 Olympic Games, but Semenya says she does not want to be involved in the country’s sporting administration.
“I have been betrayed so many times by the very same people. I don’t see myself sitting at a table with an enemy,” she said on the sidelines of the Spar Grand Prix road running awards in Johannesburg.
“I am going to be honest; I am speaking just for myself. I have no interest in any position or any organisation at this moment.”
Semenya’s difficult relationship with athletics authorities has been shaped by a long-running dispute over regulations affecting athletes with differences of sex development (DSD).
The South African is a three-time world 800m champion and won Olympic gold at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She spent years challenging World Athletics rules that required certain female athletes with naturally elevated testosterone levels to medically reduce those levels in order to compete in specified women’s events.
Semenya refused to take medication to lower her testosterone and pursued a legal challenge against the regulations. She lost an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2019, but the European Court of Human Rights ruled in her favour in 2023 in a case involving Switzerland’s handling of her legal challenge.
She has now said she does not expect to return to athletics administration.
“They use you as bait, so I don’t want to be in a space where I need to answer to someone,” Semenya said.
Instead, her focus is on her own projects, including Masai Athletics Club and the Caster Semenya Foundation. The foundation aims to encourage children and communities from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in sport.
“I want to fix my own ship, which is Masai Athletics Club, the Caster Semenya Foundation, which is my priority, and my athletes,” she said.
Semenya also indicated that any involvement in national or international sporting leadership would be postponed.
“At the moment I will pause it because I don’t see myself working with snakes.”
Her decision also rules out, for now, a role as an ambassador for South Africa’s potential Olympic hosting campaign. As a two-time Olympic champion and one of the country’s most prominent athletes, she would have been a high-profile figure for any bid to stage the Games.
However, Semenya said her priorities currently remain her club, foundation and the athletes she is helping to develop.
