Doubt does not even breathe into Santhi Soundarajan’s voice as she answers how Caster Semenya would deal with a possibly failed gender test and the subsequent medal revocation. “She can’t,” is what the former Indian athlete says about the South African runner in the centre of the current storm. Soundarajan had her Doha Asian Games 800m silver medal taken away, along with her right to keep competing, after she failed a similar test in 2006. 

Semenya’s case has drawn much attention as the 18-year-old finds herself in the biggest controversy of her just-blooming career after her most important victory. 

Soundarajan says the Doha incident still haunts her. “When former players talk of me they don’t talk of me as an athlete who won international medals, they think of me as a cheat. I have lived a life of humiliation,” says Soundarajan, speaking to The Indian Express on phone from her hometown of Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. 

Debate has been raging after South Africa announced it would go any lengths to protect their “heroine” and medical experts began raising the issue of the complexities of sexual distinction. 

Less than three years ago, when Soundarajan found herself in a similar situation, the supposedly damning result of the test had her much more isolated. “No one spoke out in my favour, but I’m glad she (Semenya) has her country’s backing. Now the world body needs to make sure that her medal is not taken away from her. There is no life after something like this is done to you. She must come back,” Soundarajan says.

... contd.