South African Runner Semenya's Victory Clouded By Gender Doubts

Caster Semenya of South Africa should be basking in the accomplishment of winning a gold medal and setting a personal best in the 800 meters at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany Wednesday.

Instead, the 18-year old has had her gender questioned because of her masculine features, with doubters saying she's actually a man, though they don't have any proof.

Proof of her gender may be forthcoming with the International Athletic Associations Federation asking the South African Athletic Association to have gender testing done.

According to a story on ESPN.com:

The verification requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender.

It will take weeks before the test results are known.

 

There've been some mean-spirited comments made by Semenya by other athletes and on the Internet.
This from the Chicago Tribune:

"There are people who shouldn't compete with us," (sixth-place finisher in the 800 meters, Italian Elisa) Cusma told Italian journalists. "She is not a woman, she is a man. We let people win medals, and they don't deserve it."

Fifth finisher Mariya Savinova of Russia made similar comments, according to Russian media who interviewed her.

All of this has led to indignation in South Africa as her family and compatriots rally to her defense.

From the website of South Africa's Sowetan newspaper:

The father of South Africa's new middle distance sensation Caster Semenya has made a passionate plea to the world to leave his daughter alone.

Jacob Semenya said yesterday that any controversy caused by unfounded claims against his daughter at "this stage of the World Athletics Championships" could affect her adversely.

"She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times."

Her grandmother, who also says she raised the runner, weighed in, along with the athlete's sister. From the Times (of South Africa):

But Semenya's proud paternal grandmother, Maphuthi Sekgala, 80, said the girl had always been teased about her boyish looks and about being the only girl in the soccer team in Fairlie village, about 60km west of Polokwane.

"[The controversy] doesn't bother me that much because I know she's a woman — I raised her myself," Sekgala told The Times.

Despite reports that Semenya was shielded from global media speculation about her gender ahead of last night's race, Sekgala said her granddaughter phoned her on Monday night to tell her that many people in Berlin believe that she isn't a woman.

"She called me after [the heats] and told me that they think she's a man," Sekgala said.

"What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man? It is God who made her look that way."

Sekgala said her granddaughter had brushed off the taunts of other pupils at her school. "If the teasing hurt her, she kept the hurt to herself and didn't show what she was feeling," she said.

Semenya's sister, Nkele, 16, said yesterday: "People must stop calling her a man because we are proud of her."

South Africans are also invoking national pride and accusing Semanya's doubters of racism and anti-Africanism, among other -isms.

Again from the Times (of South Africa):

MOKGADI "Caster" Semenya is a national hero after her stellar performance in the 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last night.

The 18-year-old running sensation from a rural Limpopo village showed her mettle — despite an international controversy raging about her gender.

Considering the possibility that Semenya is really what she and her family and coaches say she is, people might want to slow down the rush to judgment.