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Cape Town - South African comedian Trevor Noah has used The Daily Show to come out in support of 800m double Olympic champion Caster Semenya.
Noah, who has been hosting the popular American late night talk show since 2015, devoted a segment on his show this week to the IAAF's ruling that Semenya must now take medication to lower her natural levels of testosterone if she want to keep competing in the 800m.
In the segment, which the show later tweeted, Noah suggests that Semenya was being targeted for being "too good".
"It's not like she's doping. She didn't change her body in any way to gain an advantage. She just has a natural advantage, which is what happens in all sport," he said.
"Michael Phelps has a body that produces half as much lactic acid as most people which gives him longer endurance.
"And when he was tested, sporting officials said he was lucky that his body works that way.
"They didn't say 'you got to change yourself, Michael Phelps. You got to get tired before the race'."
Semenya and her legal team have until the end of May to appeal the ruling, which was given the green light by the Court for Arbitration of Sport (CAS) last week.
The IAAF wants to alter runner Caster Semenya’s hormones for… being too good at running? pic.twitter.com/lhABEyyzCa
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) May 8, 2019
