Caster Semenya Epitomises Defiance in Another Powerful Nike Film

Nike continues its headline-grabbing 30th anniversary ‘Just Do It’ campaign with another powerful film and another carefully considered partnership, this time with South African Olympic medallist Caster Semenya.

The middle-distance runner has 18 gold medals to her name, despite a career repeatedly marred by challenges of ‘sex verification’ and official rulings on testosterone levels in athletics.

It’s less than a week since the sports brand launched its last big campaign film, controversially starring Colin Kaepernick - the quarterback who ‘took a knee’ to protest racist police violence in the US. The decision sparked widespread debate, dividing audiences and provoking some to boycott the brand, but a spike in Nike sales indicates that this principled stand was a good decision. 

The new film, created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam and directed by Park Pictures’ AG Rojas, retraces the steps on Semenya’s journey towards her elite status, memorialising the key moments that helped her to become the athlete she is today by going back in time from present day to her childhood.

In her narration, the athlete asks: “Would it be easier for you if I wasn’t so fast? Would it be simpler if I stopped winning? Would you be more comfortable if I was less proud? Would you prefer if I hadn’t worked so hard, or just didn’t run? Or chose a different sport? Or stopped at my first steps?

“That’s too bad because I was born to do this.”