Caster Semenya's 800m gold medal overshadowed by gender controversy

[malaise]

at the IAAF

I feel so sorry for Caster but she sure looks more male than female.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/6057676/World-Athletics-Caster-Semenya-800m-gold-medal-overshadowed-by-gender-controversy.html
<snip>
Semenya crowned a spectacular season by triumphing in 1min 55.45sec while Britain's Jenny Meadows produced a lifetime best of 1min 57.93sec to take the bronze - Britain's third medal of the championship. Fellow Briton Marilyn Okoro was eighth.

But instead of being able to celebrate her victory, Semenya found herself facing uncomfortable questions about whether she should really have been lining up in today's first-round heats of the men's 800m.

Ever since her arrival in Berlin, she has been the subject of whispers and innuendos about her masculine body shape and facial features.

Earlier in the day the International Association of Athletics Federations admitted that it was so concerned about the rumours and her huge improvement this season that it had asked Athletics South Africa (ASA) to carry out a "gender verification" test on the athlete.

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[TrogL]

1. What if the genetics comes out something interesting?

ie. something other than XX or XY?

http://www.messybeast.com/mosaicism2.htm

[malaise]

2. That's quite possible

It's happened before.

[rocktivity]

3. Yes--I remember something about a woman losing her Olympic medal

because she had an extra chromosome.

:think:
rocktivity

[Ex Lurker]

4. apparently transgender athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympics now

Which raises a whole other set of questions, ie why is it ok for them to take hormones when it's not for other athletes.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/06/14/MNGNM75MUK1.DTL