She first won gold at the World Championships in and went on to win at the Olympics and the World Championships , where she also won a bronze medal in the metres.
After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova , she was also awarded gold medals for the World Championships and the Olympics. Following Semenya's victory at the World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing , and cleared to return to competition the following year. In , new IAAF World Athletics rules came into force for athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development DSDs requiring medication to suppress testosterone levels in order to participate in m , m , and m women's events.
Semenya refused to undergo the treatment, which is now mandatory. She has three sisters and a brother. Individuals with 5-ARD have normal male internal structures that are not fully masculinised during the development of the reproductive system in utero, due to low levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone DHT.
As a result, the external genitalia may appear ambiguous or female at birth. Semenya has said that she was born with a vagina and internal undescended testes , but that she has no uterus or fallopian tubes and does not menstruate. In July, Semenya participated in the World Junior Championships in the m and did not qualify for the finals. She won gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games with a time of In the African Junior Championships , Semenya won both the m and m races with the times of In August, Semenya won gold in the metres at the World Championships with a time of Following her victory at the world championships, questions were raised about her sex.
The combination of her rapid athletic progression and her appearance culminated in World Athletics formerly called the IAAF asking her to take a sex verification test to ascertain whether she was female. The sex test results were never published officially, but some results were leaked in the press and were widely discussed, resulting in at the time unverified claims about Semenya having an intersex trait. In November , South Africa's sports ministry issued a statement that Semenya [ 42 ] had reached an agreement with the IAAF to keep her medal and award.
