How Caster Semenya and Israel Folau have become weaponised
The cases of Israel Folau and Caster Semenya have been weaponised for personal crusades.
It might be that bullies are savaging Rugby Australia because the organisation is led by a woman whose decision to discipline Israel Folau has weakened the Wallabies in a World Cup year.
Forget the contrived freedom of religion, freedom of speech evangelising. Izzy is too good a player not to be a Wallaby — at any cost.
There is no doubt both athletes are being used as weapons. Semenya has been thwarted by rules that place a ceiling on the amount of testosterone a female middle- distance runner is allowed in her body.
For some reason the rule only applies to the 400m, 800m, 1500m and the mile. These are distances over which Semenya, a world and Olympic 800m gold medallist thrives. Not anymore is the IAAF’s wish.
Unless Semenya takes drugs to suppress her testosterone count she cannot participate in those events. Why? The science that a higher level of testosterone in women will automatically make them faster is uncertain. Yet Semenya is banned.
When Semenya ran into world headlines and cynical and fretting focus by winning the world 800m gold in Berlin when she was 18, she did it only after a sex test.
The results have never been made public nor the protocols by which officials sought a finding. However, it is accepted wisdom that athletics’ insiders believe she passed a physical examination. Surely, she would not have been allowed to compete otherwise.
Since then, world athletic officials have sought to find ways that they can stop Semenya’s supremacy. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was not subjected to such invasive treatment — other than normal doping tests — as he dominated his sport in a manner far superior to Semenya.
He slashed the world marks for the 100m and 200m and was all but unbeatable. In 2008, he set a world record of 9.763sec and ripped it down to 9.572 within two years. And that’s where it stands. Bolt has never tested positive to anything but an abundance of self-confidence.
For all Semenya’s dominance she has never held the 800m record. She has run 1min 54.60sec in 2018 but never challenged the 1983 world mark of 1:53.28 by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova. Set when she was 32, it is regarded as one of the most suspect track and field records.
Kratochvilova drew attention not just with her speed over 400m and 800m but her muscular build. There is no evidence that she failed a drug or sex test although dope testing was spasmodic until the 2000s.
But it is worth noting Semenya’s natural advantage of raised testosterone does not get her near a questionable world record that has stood for 36 years, set off the back, thighs and calves of alleged doping with male hormones.
That the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed with the IAAF’s ruling that for Semenya to compete in middle-distance races she must unnaturally suppress her testosterone count is discriminatory. Also, that it supported the injustice on the grounds it “levelled the playing field” for the greater number of women who compete without Semenya’s natural advantage.
The point has been well made that no such attempt was ever considered to weaken Bolt’s domination of men’s sprinting.
No ruling sought to curb swimmer Michael Phelps’ one-off advantage of double-jointed ankles that turned his kick into propellers, long arms that spanned his lane so he looked like the Sydney Harbour Bridge as he became the first man to break 50 seconds for the 100m.
Never mind that his body could manufacture but a dollop of the handbrake that is lactic acid. His competitors, meanwhile, would be drowning in the stuff.
No, Semenya, who is said to be intersex as an explanation for her higher testosterone count, has instead been forced to undergo the torture of physical examinations to prove her gender.
International athletics officials should be celebrating a rare champion. Instead they have become a huddled homage to mediocrity and persecution.
Similarly, rugby union’s Israel Folau has been used callously as a weapon by those who seek to arm him in his fight with the game’s ruling body. Folau’s $4 million contract with Rugby Australia could be shredded following his social media post that unrepentant homosexuals, among others including adulterers, atheists and liars, are headed for hell. RA rated the post as a high-level breach of the code of conduct.
This is nothing more than a commercial decision. Folau is paid a lot of money to play for the Waratahs and the Wallabies as well as promote the game.
The highest-profile rugby player telling the world that if you are a homosexual then you are hell- bound is harming the reputation of the sport as an inclusive community. It is a blatant breach.
The likes of Alan Jones have corrupted the argument to one of free speech and religious freedom. How cynical and self-serving.
What if a Muslim tweeted something similar about unrepentant Christians, do you think Jones would rush to his defence?
Jones has turned this straightforward case into a personal crusade to embarrass RA and promote his influence.
Folau is free to say what he likes about life, rugby or religion.
It is just inappropriate to do it as an ambassador for rugby. Sponsors have already walked.
Folau can express his opinions about “sinners” in his role as a preacher. He can do it until his throat runs dry.
Again, his freedom of speech is not challenged nor his freedom of religion.
The columns in this paper by Jones indicate he has advised Folau very poorly. Someone should remind Folau that you can build a lot of pulpits with $4m. A lot of candles. A lot of Bibles.
He must not fall into the sycophantic hyperbole of Jones who may well be using Folau as nothing more than a stepping stone to rugby union’s crown of power.
Lying is AFL’s second language
Very few coaches can manipulate a news conference as well as Ross Lyon. He could turn a giraffe on its head.
Looking like money for nothing
Racing Australia is nothing more than a strapper for the chiefs that run racing in Victoria and NSW.
It might be that Caster Semenya, the outstanding South African runner, cannot compete in her best events because she is better than everyone else. For no other genuine reason.