Runner Caster Semenya says she's not done fighting for the right to compete

While being sidelined from the sport she loves hasn't been easy, Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya says fighting for the right to compete has helped her accept the rules that restrict her from running.

"At the moment, my priorities [are] on levelling the sport, advocating for what is right," she told The Sunday Magazine host Piya Chattopadhyay. 

"I believe in fighting the injustice. I believe in diversity and inclusivity. I believe in advocating for human rights, and that's me…. I'm in peace. I'm good."

The middle-distance runner, 32, from South Africa hasn't been allowed to compete in distances from 400 metres to one mile (1,609 metres) since 2019, when governing body World Athletics instituted a policy that requires women like Semenya, who have high levels of testosterone, to take medication that suppresses the hormone if they want to race.

Semenya says she took the medication for a period of time, but has since stopped saying it "tortured" her body.

For the past five years, Semenya has been fighting a legal battle with World Athletics over its testosterone limit for women. The court challenges began in 2018, and led to three appeals by Semenya — the last of which she won in July. 

However, Semenya says her advocacy work — and her personal story, which she chronicles in a new memoir titled The Race to Be Myself — won't be over until men in sporting organizations stop making rules over women's bodies.

"Fighting for this injustice, that's what I'm going to do … Fight for women, make sure that women are respected, women's sports is respected," she said.

In 2008, Semenya started to make waves for her stellar performance at junior competitions. But in the lead-up to the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, World