Is women's world track champion really a man?

[steven johnson]

I thought eastern european shot putters 30 years ago were the last cross dressing athletes.

BERLIN -- At the press conference for the medalists in the women's 800 meters at the world championships Wednesday, a man, Pierre Weiss, spoke in the place of winner Caster Semenya of South Africa.

That gender transposition captured the essence of a bizarre and unprecedented series of circumstances in which the International Association of Athletics Federations has launched an investigation to determine Semenya's sex.

At least two of the seven runners who lost to the 18-year-old South African are convinced she is not a woman.

The issue of gender testing is so controversial the International Olympic Committee suspended widespread gender testing in 1999, reserving the right to do psychological, gynecological and chromosome investigations "if there is a valid suspicion," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said in an email.





Is women's world track champion really a man?

[El Supremo]

1. Well, nobody's perfect.

[joeybee12]

2. A look at her and there's suspicion...n/t

[Captain Hilts]

4. Don't you mean "A look at 'her' and there's suspicion...nt

[Captain Hilts]

3. Oh my. nt

[Poiuyt]

5. What an unfortunate situation to be in

[brendan120678]

6. Now I realize that there are many, many female athletes who...

don't have a stereotypical "feminine" look.

But seriously...


Aside from the hairstyle, that woman looks almost 99% man.

[Auggie]

7. A woman's perspective (good read): "Drug testing trumped by gender testing"

by Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle: 8-19-09

Albert Pujols knows that, on every home run, his swing connects with suspicion. So many people want to believe in him, to imagine each homer sweeping baseball's doping scandals further into the past. Pujols can't definitively prove that he is different, that he is clean. Usain Bolt crushes the 100-meter world record again. He is dazzling, a showman with rock-star panache who promises to revive track and field. But like Pujols, he is stalked by an ugly history. Three of the last eight men (Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin) to break the 100-meter record have been banned for doping. Montgomery kept the mark for almost three years before federal agents uncovered what the drug tests missed.

So Bolt and Pujols are stuck answering for the sins of their predecessors. But in this era of profound skepticism, they should be grateful for one thing: Nobody will ever watch them excel and then accuse them of not being real men.

South African teenager Caster Semenya, the winner of the women's 800-meter race at the world championships, has been undergoing gender-verification testing. She must be examined by, among others, a gynecologist, psychologist and endocrinologist.

Semenya, 18, reportedly has a deep voice, and her pictures show a physique notably more muscular than the bodies of even her most accomplished rivals. She has dropped almost nine seconds from her best 800 time in the last year - the type of improvement that usually suggests performance-enhancing drugs.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/20/SP2619AQH4.DTL

[TZ]

8. Interesting but the testing can have a positive benefit for the athelete

If she's chromosomally abnormal (say XXY or even X0) there are potentially adverse health issues associated with it. The testing will reveal this and then the person can be treated for it.

[Auggie]

9. Excellent point