Housekeeping items, please silence your cell and any other Electronic Devices for the duration of the events. Please take a moment to identify the nearest exit. There are five within this hall. Caster semenya will be signing books at the table to my right following. The event a signing line form across the stage and down in this aisle to my left, to your rights. And there additional of the race to be myself available at the sales table just in the front entrance of the hall and. Lastly, i want to take a moment to thank you for. Buying books from harvard bookstore. Your support events like this and help ensure the future of this local independent bookstore as we continue our fall series. And now i am so pleased to introduce tonights speakers Caster Semenya is a professional from south africa after Sports Science at the university of northwest semenya began running competitively in 2008. In 2012 and 2016, semenya won olympic gold medal for the womens 800 meter dash. In 2009, 2011 and 2017, semenya was a gold medalist. The same events in the world athletic championships. She lives in pretoria, south africa, with her family. She is joined on stage tonight by kim, acclaimed author of women is and professor of creative writing at emerson college. I remembered one thing i forgot to note, which is that cspan is joining us tonight. So during the q a portion, please raise your hands and wait until the boom. Mike to you before answering your questions. Just to be sure recaps are everything thank you so much. Caster semenya is presenting her new memoir, the race to be myself. In this book, semenya shares the vivid and heartbreaking story of how the world came to know her name, thrust into the spotlight at just years old after winning the berlin championships in 2009, semenyas win was quickly overshadowed by criticism. Speculation about her body, and she became the center of a still raging firestorm about how gender plays out in sports. Our expectations of female athletes, the right to compete as you are told, with captivating speed, candor. The race to be myself is, the journey of semenyas years as an athlete in public eye and her life behind closed from her girl beginnings, running free in the dusts to crushing opponents, record time on the track to, accusations and falsehoods spread about her in the press or the legal trail she went through in order to compete and the humiliation she has been forced to endure publicly and privately. In the words of trevor noah, quote, cass, your story isnt just a tale of perseverance and poise its a story that makes us all interrogate our humanity and the world we build with our actions every day, an essential. We were so pleased this event here at First Baptist church tonight. Please join me in welcoming Caster Semenya and kim mclarin. To meet. Right. Its cold in here. You just im just just going to say that its cold in here. Thank you very much, elliot. Thank you all for being here. Its really a pleasure. I also want to say this is the closest i will ever get to an olympic gold medal. So. Yay so theres so much to talk about. Going to talk for about maybe half an hour and then well take questions from the audience. So please, please get your questions ready and please make you read this book. It is fantastic. Been reading it for the past two weeks. The story is really powerful so. I think i must have been asleep when all this was happening because i dont remember it, but i learned much. It made me angry. It made me fury is it made me question it made me think a lot. And so lets just right in and i guess the first question i want to ask you, caster, or tell me again, mohadi, im trying to pronounce it correctly. He is that for years and its so powerful when you say much of what has been written about me and virtually every Major International outlet in the world, i have waited a long time to tell my story for more than a decade. I have preferred to let my running do the talking. And you were quiet for so you didnt speak for so long when and you say and here when journalists ask you questions, you said, i dont want to talk about that nonsense. Why . Why for so long did you not speak . And why are you speaking now . Why are you telling this story now . Hey, everyone oh, i think more from wanting to be mature enough, you know, to know what to say. You. Because sometimes when youre young you speak out of anger, you you dont you know what to say or you dont know the meaning of what saying. But for me, i think i wanted to be more mature enough but the most important thing was to learn you know myself you know to have a better relationship with myself to understand myself in an excellent way. Nothing can shake me you know nothing can intimidate me. Nothing can make me and or put in a space where i disrespect one. But i think it was more fair learning Human Behavior how to deal with human how to treat them with respect how to communicate well with the world. But think it was more for getting mature and being knowledgeable skills. Getting to the communication channel, trust in the process but also to pause and just feel myself enjoy the groove, enjoy the ride, also enjoy the learning, even though it was not a smooth ride, it was hard. I did not enjoy, but i enjoyed, you know, being myself. I enjoy it. My space. I paused, i listened. I look out, you know, i just look from the distance so i can just understand and, you know, the perimeter of life because when you 18, sometimes youll be, you know, in a dark space where you are lost, you know, and youre lost. You lose your sense. And for me, i think it was just a matter of know, just listening distance myself from the talks and you know, just do for me, you understand and i have that relationship with myself, you know, learn how to love myself, learn how to accept myself, how to appreciate myself and respect myself in a way that even when i walk out or say, okay, im ready for the world. And ill say im ready now emotionally and yeah, im just in a happy space to say, you know what . Im going to tell the way it is. Nice yeah, i love that you say, you know, learn to love myself or to know what to know myself and. One of the things i found most powerful about your story is how, uh, how you did know who you were, right no matter the whole world trying to tell Something Different and, you know, and and whats great about the first chapter, its called god made me right. And how you grew up. Talk, talk a little bit about growing up in your your village and how you knew who you were. Your parents knew who you were everybody knew who you were. It was never question right in your in your village talk about that i think growing up in a small village i grew up in. It takes a village to raise a kids. We always say, you know, Charity Begins at home i think what my village you know, the society and my parents, you know, my my cousins, what theyve done, you know, for me, its phenomenal because they made sure that im always happy. You know, they made sure that i feel loved they made sure that you i feel welcomed and made me feel special and my childhood has been i love it. You know, it made me the person i am today. And what i can is that they made sure that i understand ubuntu means humanity if you know where im coming from and humility its important because you start understanding the importance of respect know you start respecting people but then it comes with you first. Do you respect yourself enough . Do you love yourself enough . I think thats my society gave me and for me from that day i took it with me to say, you know what if my society t love me for who i am . Why can i do it for myself and from that young age i started, you know, figuring out, you know, to live, even knowing that youre a little bit different, you know, i up you know around boys most of my cousins you know boys so i played i was the wife i grew up in the bush. You mean you hunted with the girls so. Skloot youre a good hunter. And it was beautiful because it teaches you to respond to ability. You know, you become, from a young age, you start understanding how to invest in yourself. You stand in a standing cultural play in your life, and then from that start i knew my purpose, you know, i knew, you know, what was for a reason. You know, im change, you know, my name is mahadi, the one who guides you, understand . I always number one, you know, whos always for what i feel is i it nothing. And that we have done in the bush krays have done low in the bush was what stays in the boys like whatever in vegas stays in vegas know you know they say and for me i think that was it that it did build me it created a soul that is pure a soul that is fearless, a soul that, you know, just once was best. You even someone does wrong to me not to be like that person. You know what i do . I just forgive you and say you dont know what youre doing you dont know who youre dealing with youre stand and it made me live the best life of my life you know ive enjoyed everything about childhood and i appreciate know my patterns i appreciate it everyone who has played a role to allow me to be myself if you say thats the way to begins right and thats whats so whats so great is that your parents did allow you to be yourself and i its interesting right, that its not that there any roles for men women right. Like women did this men but its like but you wanted to do this and thats fine. Nobody had any problem with it right. Because its like the next chapter is called different kind of girls. Like everybody said, this is a is a different kind of girl, but its a girl. And that was cool, right . That was no problem, its okay that you could go out in the hunt. Right. And that was that was no problem because it was all this these these these ideas of what men are supposed to do and what women are supposed to do, come the western side, not from your your ethnic your culture. Right. Thats got some i think with us it goes with what you can do our responsibilities we say 5050. Anybody can do anything. I liked, you know, gardening. We had livestock so i like, you know, looking of the cows and sheeps and stuff like that. And i liked know fixing a could have been a mechanical engineer or Something Like that you know i like electronics, you know, i like to fix a large climb the roof, fix the roof, you understand those are the things that love to do and what my parents did was like, okay, is that you . Like, is that what makes you happy . Do it will support you. Thats what i do also to my kids. I have, you know, two daughters now, four and two. What im going to do, im going to do the same thing just allow them to follow their path. Everyone has a purpose in life. My moms and dads has this i have mine. I have my vision, i have my goals but the most important thing is as a human, if you understand purpose, if you understand the you go in. Its not about, you know, the destination. You know, its about 50. Feel your purpose for me im about change. Im about to educate people about selflove, you know, about selfactualization and about selfcontrol, self management. Those are the that is a human sometimes can be a very difficult skill to do, but its very simple. But for you to just take time and control yourself take time to know yourself. It can be difficult because. We tend to signify as ourselves, you know, for our loved ones. But then we forgot, we forget to live our lives, you know, as for me, i think theres the reason why i came up. But you know what . Let me just tell my story. You know how i did it, why im successful, how i got the enlisting. It was about those things right. Do you think that that that sense purpose, that sense of knowing who you and why youre here, your name what your name means, you think that surprise people . Im getting a little out of getting a little ahead of myself. Im trying to go chronologically, but its so exciting. But like, when youre going against the iaf, right, all this stuff, do you think that surprised them that you so grounded you think they expected you to crumble . You know, yeah. I think the surprises comes with how you kill yourself, you know, how you handle the situation. Im a very strong, you know, human being. I dont get saved by criticism. I dont get shamed by just mental, you know, when people critique, i just look and say, oh, so what . You understand that of a person who love herself to an extent, where when you when you start questioning me, i do it well. Instead, i make angry to an extent away you youll have to try to destroy me. But with my situation was more like when people tried to diminish me. People to make me feel like i dont belong. I started owning. I started running the show. Then they got trapped into my show because im like, okay, if you think questioning gender, if you think saying im not enough, i belong here just like any other, im going to make sure to win them gold. I go win all the races that i love to stand and that makes you see who they really. And for me, it helped me be a better person to see things in a different way. See, you know what . Im not going to allow this thing happen. Im going to fight for what is right and want to fight for injustice. Ill go advocate for those who can voice out. Ill advocate for those who cannot fight for themselves because the day im going to be like, jesus, i myself for the young upcoming generation. Because for me, ive lived my life. I won all major titles. So i cannot, you know, seed and people doing wrong to the young ones you know so me i think the surprise was they keep on hitting me yeah i get up he 20 times i go up 35 you understand. I am kind of a person who always makes sure that when i do something, i do it in a good way. And i always say i practice it up until can get it wrong. Thats a master class, right yes. Nice. Yeah. And because you were you were still so young. I want to take you up to so. Well, lets lets start with running. What what do you love about running so youre a young girl youre growing up in this village in south africa. Yes and you loved soccer first or football. Sorry, sorry. Americans, we dont know what were calling football. Why . Why turn to running and what is it about running that you that you love . I think running me just got a lot of definition for me because when i ran. I feel free, you know, i soon out, you know. It explains everything to me. It makes me feel good. Im all in the space, you know, it takes me of this in the world and put me somewhere else where i have no worries. Ive got nothing worry about. Its just all me no crossing the line, finishing the line its not about me winning but its about me just fulfilling, you know that purpose, you know that. And it makes me feel free to an extent where i stop understanding myself. It took to a process where ill say, hes a healing process, cause even when im being told, you know, women enough, you dont belong to the sports, you a cheat, but when i do that, its like a moonwalk, you know, i feel like a Michael Jackson seal this that understand and thats what i rock the best is running and while football it makes me you question the Little Things soccer and in soccer you know i played a like im sometimes when i strike if i dont score goals i get blamed you know when im in the middle field if this supports me its a play. If i am a defender they score goals i can defend. They blame me. But i own the space. I own myself. I got to decide. Ive got to my body. I got to tell when im tired, when i dont want to do it. But soccer, youre going to push whether youre tired or not. If you position i cut me. You talk, you understand . So what when it had to come to me choosing between you know sports you know soccer and athletics and say you know what that takes because i see a future you know for me it was all about you know, portraying, you know that resilience in sports, you know, making sure that im fulfilled right. What i can say is that running fulfilled me. Nice. Im always fulfilled every day when i run, im less. But when i do, i the activities is stress. Because i think about but me alone doing this running training, im the one to be blamed. So its like i remember 2016 before the olympics i was like, i dont want to go jog and then i have this dream my opponents are passing me. So like i wake up and go run instead. So but soccer, they help me athletics. Its all about you. My. Yeah. Is there any other just curious other sport that you, that youre interested in. Oh i like boxing nice. I like hitting a lot. Thats oc noted like boxing. I did boxing, i did kick boxing. Taking boxing. But then baseball i played baseball a lot i was good, you know, it was good, you know, it was a good batter. And was good. It was a good pitcher. And i lions a lot. So i would say on the talent that human being around talented being i would say so i would say so and obviously and so talented enough to get to berlin. Lets get up to there. In 2009, the world and you know what you were saying earlier about about being the kind of person who can not let the world rattle that part. And i dont want to give away because i want you to read it, but it is. So maybe you could just talk about like what you went through within hours days of going out in running for the like its its really just awful and susceptible. But you didnt crumble, right . A lot of people would have been knocked over by that. Like how did you talk or just talk a little bit about that day as much as you wanted to give away about, you know, what they put you through and then how you found the reserves go out there and not only compete, but to win, i think go what is happening there is that its the definition of not giving up, you know, giving giving up is not in my dna and what i them out. Thats when i realized that, you know, when people see greatness. They will always try to distract or try diminish or try to destroy it. And i remember, after hearing the hits and remember, im coming from home of the african juniors around the world lead and im number one in the world, 18 years of age, you know being experienced. Ive never done, you know, in the world stage and theyve done whatever theyve done in south africa. You through my federation and stuff like that i didnt know that these agenda test i can only in the process when im in the room examining room that you know so this is this is not right then but then come into berlin weve already done the tests and of course they have results. What they wanted to do is to make sure that they distract me. They make sure that i dont feel welcome. They make sure that irritate me, make sure that i get to the final. But they did not realize that for me being, questioned does not shake me, you know, being told you enough, dont shake me. And i had it in my mind say i remember i told the president of our athletics although if he got im saying if they want me out theyre going to pull me off the track. Right because they tried this get you to voluntarily step down. Yes and no they said no yeah, if theres any one want me out, come check me out because i knew they calculated wrong. I did mathematic like money, you understand. I at them like 6000 years. No, no ways. Im not turning down that you understand. Im still young. Could be my jackpot