Caster Semenya is the 800 Meter Champ but is She a She?
by Charles Jay
CONFUSION SURROUNDS 800-METER CHAMP
Track and Field Betting
Caster Semenya is a star, winning the gold medal in the women's 800 meters at the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Championships in Berlin. Semenya posted a blistering time of one minute, 55.45 seconds that blew away the field, beating Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya, who won this event last year, by 2.45 seconds. It was the world's best time this year, and who knows - the world record of 1:53:28, set by Jarmila Kratochivlova in 1983, may be within reach. At the age of 18, Semenya is a bona fide sensation in the track and field universe.
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There's only one problem with all of this.
Caster Semenya may not be a woman after all.
After Wednesday's dominant performance, the IAFF has asked the South African Athletics Federation to conduct an exam verifying Semenya's gender, and since this is a process that can take weeks to complete, the validity of the result of Wednesday's race may indeed be in doubt until then. It is a very painstaking process, which involves not only reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, and internal medicine specialist, but also physical examinations and the opinions of gender experts weighing in. Even then, the results can be inconclusive because they must definitively show that Semenya is completely a man, and not someone who just has some male chromosomes.
This did not come out of the blue. There have been questions about Semenya's gender for some time now, and the IAAF actually asked for the testing after Semenya set a personal best in a race in Mauritius. The runner's coach, Michael Seme, seems to understand. "We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man," he said. "It's a natural reaction and it's only human to be curious."
Yes, Semenya does indeed look like a man, and talks like a young man as well. As for running like a man, let's keep in mind that the gold medal-winning time is still not one of the ten best in the history of women's 800-meter running, and that the men's record in the event is more than fourteen seconds better.
I'd say the Charles Jay Line would be about -160 against a conclusive test coming back and disqualifying Semenya. There is a high threshold to meet.
Of course, gender bending would be nothing new in the Olympic or amateur sports.
One case that is still somewhat in doubt involves Santhi Soundarajan of India, who was stripped of "her" silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a sex test. However, what was discovered is that "she" may have a condition called Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, which may make her a woman despite the presence of a "Y" chromosome. Soundarajan later attempted suicide, unsuccessfully, and is now a track coach.
Dora Ratjen, a product of Hitler's Germany, did not want to shower or change with the other female athletes at the 1936 Olympic games, where "she" placed fourth in the women's high jump. Ratjen was later found to be a man (first name: Hermann) and said that the Nazis made him enter the Olympics as a woman.
Yvonne Buschbaum, who finished sixth in the women's Olympic pole vault at the 2000 Games, tired of living her life in the body of a woman and underwent gender reassignment surgery to become a man. He (or she, as it were) is now known as Balian Buschbaum. Balian, who has been taking heavy doses of testosterone, is becoming a pole vaulting coach in Germany.
Edinanci Silva, a judo player from Brazil was born with both male and female sex organs, and later had the male organs removed in order to compete as a woman. She did so in three different Olympiads, and passed a sex test.
Heidi Krieger was a German shot-putter who had been fed a load of steroids and other drugs as a youth. She won the European championships in her event, but the drugs had taken their toll. A suicide attempt, along with massive gender confusion (we're confused already) followed. The athlete later underwent surgery to reassign gender and became Andreas Krieger. He married Ute Krause, a former East German swimmer. Ute's a she.
Perhaps the most bizarre episode surrounded Stella Walsh, who grew up in Cleveland but represented Poland in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, winning 100-meter gold in the first and silver in the second. It was not until 1980, when Walsh was shot to death as an innocent bystander in an armed robbery, that it was determined, during the autopsy, that male genitalia was present (along with some female characteristics).
I've heard of "Glen or Glenda," but this is all a little too much for me. Over and out.
