Margaret Wambui

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Margaret Nyairera Wambui
Margaret Wambui Rio 2016.jpg
Wambui at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born (1995-09-15) 15 September 1995 (age 29)
Nyeri, Kenya [1]
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight70 kg (154 lb)
Sport
Sport Track and field
Event 800 metres
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)1:56.89 (outdoors, 2016)
2:00.44 (indoors, 2016)
Medal record
Representing Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2016 Rio de Janeiro 800 m
World Indoor Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2016 Portland 800 m
African Championships
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2016 Durban 400 m
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2016 Durban 4x400 m relay

Margaret Nyairera Wambui (born 15 September 1995) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specialised in the 800 metres. [2]

Contents

In her first international competition, she won the gold at the 2014 World Junior Championships. [3] [4] She later competed at the 2015 World Championships without advancing from her heat. At the 2016 World Indoor Championships she won the bronze medal. [5] That same year she competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics, setting a new personal best of 1:56.89 in the final, which also earned her a bronze. [6]

In 2019, it was revealed that Wambui was born with the 46,XY karyotype and an intersex condition after she was disqualified from IAAF women's competition by the association's new regulations for athletes with XY disorders of sex development, testosterone levels above 5 nmol/L, and androgen sensitivity. [7] [8] The rules were upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. [7] Wambui declined to take medication to suppress her testostoerone levels in order to be eligible for womens competitions under the new rules, and has not competed internationally since then. [9]

She was one of the athletes whose cases were profiled in Phyllis Ellis's 2022 documentary film Category: Woman . [9]

Competition record

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing Flag of Kenya.svg  Kenya
2014 World Junior Championships Eugene, United States 1st800 m 2:00.49
2015 World Championships Beijing, China 39th (h)800 m 2:03.52
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States 3rd800 m 2:00.44
African Championships Durban, South Africa 2nd400 m 52.24
3rd4 × 400 m relay 3:30.21
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3rd800 m 1:56.89
2017 World Championships London, United Kingdom 4th800 m 1:57.54
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 800 m DQ
Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 2nd800 m 1:58.07
African Championships Asaba, Nigeria 7th (h)800 m 2:02.80 1

1Did not finish in the final

References

  1. "2018 Commonwealth Games profile" . Retrieved 29 April 2018.[ dead link ]
  2. Margaret Wambui at World Athletics OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  3. Janeiro, Bismarck Mutahi in Rio de. "Kenya's hope: Nyairera only Kenyan in 800m final as hunt for more medals continue". Standard Digital News. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  4. "Kenya's Margaret Nyairera Wambui runs a lifetime best to win women's 800: IAAF Junior World Championships 2014". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  5. "Results - 800 Metres Women - Final" (PDF). 17 March 2016.
  6. "IAAF: 800 Metres Result | The XXXI Olympic Games | iaaf.org". iaaf.org. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  7. 1 2 Francis, Anne (22 May 2019). "Olympic 800m bronze medallist Margaret Wambui banned from Stockholm Diamond League". Running. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  8. "Executive Summary" (PDF). Court of Arbitration for Sport. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  9. 1 2 Elisabetta Bianchini, "'Category: Woman' documentary calls out the human rights violation of defining a woman in sports". Yahoo! News , May 9, 2022.