When I read about the South African athlete, Caster Semenya, has lost her case against the athletic governing body, IAAF, and will have to take medication to lower her testosterone levels if she wishes to continue competing internationally in running events, I thought about Santhi Soundarajan. She used to be an athlete who competed in the middle distance track events. She was stripped of a silver medal won at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a gender verification test, disputing her eligibility to participate in the women’s competition. I had photographed in her village Kathakkuruchi, near Pudukottai, TN in 2012 for ESPN. Santhi then used to run a brick kiln in her village and lived like a man. Here are some photographs. And the story can be read here
