South African track star Caster Semenya, 19, scored her best time yet since returning to competition after last year’s gender scandal, winning the 800 meter race at the Notturna di Milano with a 1:56.16 time. It’s her last race before the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Not that the controversy has subsided.
South African athletics president Leonard Chuene, who had Semenya compete in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin last August without formal approval, was chided by South Africa’s Olympic committee for engaging in “gross misconduct” and ignoring medical advice.
Meanwhile, Caster’s win in Milan will surely to make her competition even more pleased to run against her.
Bryce
YOU GO GIRL!
Rob
She is a Hermaphrodite…Intersexed, she has an unfair advantage when competing with women because of her testosterone levels. It’s the same as if a man had a sex change and wanted to compete against women, an unfair advantage. You can try to be politically correct all you want but its the truth…
S
All “political correctness” aside, these are facts:
1. Without question, Ms. Semenya is a physiological outlier. She was born this way.
2. A man named Manute Bol was 7’7″ tall. Mr. Bol played in the NBA for ten seasons.
3. A Libyan man named Suleiman Ali Nashnush was over 8 feet tall. He, too, was a professional basketball player.
4. Both Mr. Bol and Mr. Nashnush were physiological outliers, and their special characteristics gave them a huge advantage in their sport. Nevertheless, they were born that way.
No one would suggest that they be banned from playing with people who did not share those characteristics which gave them an advantage.
Petraeous
A simple solution would be to have a delay for this person to level out the playing field. As it stands now, she is taking advantage of the other runners.
hotone2me
@Rob So should Michael Phelps be banned from swimming because of his dimension places him at an advantage for swimming? Should The Williams Sisters be banned from tennis because of their genetics makeup???
Or should the question lies upon what gender assignment really mean in society and have we all bought into the incorrect notion that one is either male or female. I don’t think that your argument is with political correctness, so much as having a basic understanding upon how the biological factors of formulation of the genders are not a binary as society would perpetrate.
Socially two separate stanzas are at play. If one has undergone reassignment surgery and one is born with ambiguous genitalia or intersexed does not place them within the same whelm. Good argument upon testosterone levels, but not all males share the same testosterone level and conversely all females do not share the same amount of estrogen. So where does that leave us?
It it what is is. If she is self identified as female, so be it. If one undergoes reassignment sugrgy and does the same, so be it. Where is the advantage or disadvantage? Its sports… its all about eliminating the competition.. so that there are not advantages!!!
missanthrope
As it stands now, she is taking advantage of the other runners.
How so? Nobody in the public even knows for sure that she’s intersex.
DR
@missanthrope:
I call “foul” on that. With all the drama surrounding this, any of her handlers with half a functioning brain cell would pull a Lance Armstrong and shift into “denial” mode. Immediately.
Mike in Asheville
Her best time, noted above, is still not even in the top 10 fastest; she must shave 3 seconds; that will take quite an effort. In some years, her time could win gold at the Olympics.
This young lady is not doing anything artificial; its her body and her effort. If that is not what sports is about, then what?