Track icon Caster Semenya’s much anticipated biography to hit book shelves
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
South African athletic icon and legend Caster’s Semenya’s much-anticipated biography will hit the book shelves in October, publisher Jonathan Ball Publisher announced yesterday, June 1, 2023.
This book should rate as one of the most anticipated biographies in rent local publishing history in the country due to the controversy surrounding her exploits on the track as well as her history of being hounded by the international sporting establishment for simply being Caster Semenya, including being subjected to demeaning tests.
The Limpopo born athlete’s track triumph is unparalleled locally as over the years Semenya emerged as one of the greatest athletes ever to run the 800 meter. She went undefeated for almost four years, winning two Olympic gold medals and three World Athletics Championships, and set and broke numerous records.
Her filed exploits over the years were however not without challenges, pain and controversy. For example Caster’s life and career were devastated by accusations that she – born with naturally elevated levels of testosterone – was not a woman and should not compete against other women.
Required by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take hormone-altering drugs as a condition of competing in certain events, Caster for years suffered side effects that she describes as devastating to her health. Her predicament surfaced a still-raging firestorm over our understanding of gender and, of how gender plays out in sports, as well as our expectations of female athletes.
The Race to be Myself tells the coming-of-age story of an iconic athlete – of Caster’s dramatic journey from a gifted and self-trained novice to the pinnacle of her sport – and takes readers behind the scenes of her inspiring battle to run in the ‘body that God gave me’.
The Race to Be Myself will be released simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa on 31 October 2023.