| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Uganda | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 April 1992 Igamba, Uganda | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Running | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 800 metres, 1500 metres | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal bests | 800 m: 1:59.08 NR (2012) 1500 m: 4:09.17 (2011) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Annet Negesa (born 24 April 1992) is a Ugandan former middle-distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres. She broke Ugandan national records in the 800 m and the 1500 metres as a teenager and was a three-time national champion at the Ugandan Athletics Championships. She represented her country at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and was the 800 m gold medallist at the 2011 All-Africa Games. As a junior (under-20) athlete, she won a team bronze medal at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, an 800 m bronze at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, and two gold medals at the 2011 African Junior Athletics Championships. She was named 2011 Athlete of the Year by Uganda Athletics Federation.[1]
Negesa has an XY disorder of sex development and a natural testosterone level in the male range. Under rules set by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), she had to reduce her testosterone levels in order to compete in the women's category. Facing pressure to continue her career, she underwent a gonadectomy, a procedure to remove internal testes in 2012. Negesa later said the purpose of the surgery had been misrepresented to her, having been compared to an "injection".[2][3][4] The inadequate medical aftercare and physical and mental damage resulting from the surgery effectively ended her career. She returned to the track at the 2017 Ugandan Championships but completed the 1500 metres in 5:06.18 – nearly a minute below her best and a time which ranked her as a club level runner rather than an elite athlete.[5][6]
While the IAAF denied recommending or paying for the surgery, Negesa's case fueled controversy over the treatment of athletes with differences in sex development.[4][7] In 2019, the German government granted her asylum.[8] She was one of the athletes whose cases were profiled in Phyllis Ellis's 2022 documentary film Category: Woman.[9]
- ^ Uganda: Negesa Pips Kipsiro to 2011 Athlete of the Year Award
- ^ Knight, Kyle (4 December 2020). ""They're Chasing Us Away from Sport" Human Rights Violations in Sex Testing of Elite Women Athletes". Human Rights Watch.
- ^ "Schwere Vorwürfe gegen IAAF-Arzt - Hintergrund - sportschau.de". www.sportschau.de. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019.
- ^ a b Morgan, Tom (27 September 2019). "Female athletes claim careers ruined after being 'coerced' into surgery to curb testosterone levels". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 4 October 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ "What's going wrong for ex-Africa junior champ Negesa?". New Vision. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ Annet Negesa. IAAF. Retrieved 2019-09-29.
- ^ Abdul, Geneva (16 December 2019). "This Intersex Runner Had Surgery to Compete. It Has Not Gone Well". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ "Running as equals. The elite athletes fighting for acceptance". CNN. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ Elisabetta Bianchini, "'Category: Woman' documentary calls out the human rights violation of defining a woman in sports". Yahoo! News, May 9, 2022.