The IAAF’s ill timed and slap handed decision to announce on the eve of the World Championship 800 metres race that South African runner Caster Semenya would be asked to take a gender test to prove she was a woman created a PR disaster for themselves.
Of course the federation should do everything possible to ensure a level playing field in its sport but how could the publicfail to symapthise with a young person shoved into the spotlight on the mosts sensitive of issues and on the eve of such an important race?
Reading between the lines, it seems that the IAAF assumed that the South African athletics federation would anticipate that questions would be asked about Semenya and therefore pull her out of the World Championships to avoid the sort of media inquest that was, in reality, caused in no small part by the IAAF. They were caught cold when Semenya was not withdrawn and did not have a satisfactory PR and communications strategy in place to deal with the situation.
By making an announcement just hours before the 800 metres final, the federation created a hostile environment in the Olympiastadion as the trackside chitchat focused on the gender of one athlete. This was no longer a race, it was an international talking point, a scandal that the IAAF could have avoided. The fact that Semenya won the race is a tribute to her ability to perform under such unnecessary scrutiny and Jenny Meadows’ superb bronze for Great Britain was almost forgotten amongst the furor.
The IAAF would shuld have worked through a senstive communications strategy with their advisors still achieiving the proper fairness in the sport but without damaging its own reputation in the meantime.
