She did win!

Well, almost.

I LOVE the 800m run.  Love love love it.  It's absolutely a grueling event even though it's only half a mile.  The thing is that you have to run really, REALLY fast, for longer than it feels like you ought to be able to maintain such a pace.

A couple of months ago I wrote a little bit about Caster Semenya.  I've been fascinated by her story, cultural differences in the perception of intersex individuals, official regulation of being man/woman enough....all sorts of gender-questioning issues that I think deserve consideration and dialogue.

I really wanted her to win.  Because it's my favorite race, and she's my favorite kind of person (a "this is who I am, I'm sorry if I don't conform to your expectations buy I love myself" kind of person).

So Saturday night, late, I watched the women's 800m.  I had already reveled in the amazing capacity of the Kenyan and Ethiopian distance runners to play with everyone else's pace/mind: something along the lines of "Yeah, you've led the race for 3/4 of it....I think I'm done letting you win, now, so we're going to pass you over the next 75 meters".  And the winner of the 10K with her celebratory thanks put me in mind of Teresa de Cartagena.  So I was happy.

The gun went off and I sat on the edge of my chair and watched Caster Semenya keep last place.  I was willing her to go faster but she just hung out....for 650 meters.

And then all of a sudden she was blazing.  She overtook all but the gold medalist in a little over 70 meters.  I couldn't believe it, I haven't seen that kind of come-from-behind in an 800.  I'm sure there has been one, but I've never seen it, and I was awestruck by it.

I'm glad that women get to do things like this these days.  I'm glad that my daughter can grow up to be a diver if she wants (that's what she was enthralled by.....and the 5K runners, who she ran along with in circles in the living room for the whole 15 minutes of their race), without the stereotypes of "get in the kitchen, woman, sports are for boys" or "we better not have an Olympic marathon competition....it will make the women who do it unfit for childbearing."  (The official reason for not including a women's marathon event in the Olympics until 1984!  Even though numerous women lobbied for it).