Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old South African runner who is sweeping the competition, is too good to be a real woman. And look at all the muscle! She must be a he! So concerned about an unfair gender advantage, the International Association of Athletics Federations forced Semenya to take a DNA test to prove she’s really a lady. What’d the results show?
Nothing, yet! The results won’t be in for several weeks, apparently. And until there’s any evidence to show that Semenya (pictured, leaping over the other gal) is actually a guy, she’ll be able to compete. Like she’s doing tonight in Berlin.
And if Semenya really is a guy? Well, at least she’s hiding her package better than Lady Gaga.
At least her coach is being a good sport over the controversy:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Meanwhile, the teenager’s coach told South African media she was aware of the controversy surrounding her.
Michael Seme told South Africa’s News24 website: ‘We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It’s a natural reaction and it’s only human to be curious.
‘People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt.
‘But I can give you the telephone numbers of her room-mates in Berlin. They have already seen she has nothing to hide.’
Jennifer
Fuck, people are STUPID.
RainaWeather
@Jennifer: Ditto.
JO
It is obvious ppl are going to question her gender… and you do not have to have a penis to have XY chromosomes… sad though since she probably grew up as a female all her life. Intersex issues are very complicated and are often not discovered until their is an issue with fertility;or after an autopsy
D.B.
Actually, this isn’t so stupid. There was an international track & field competitor in a similar situation as recently as 2006. And she failed the gender test.
FYI: the gender test is pretty complicated — it involves tests from multiple medical fields, including a psychological evaluation.
Tommy
I don’t see the fuss at all. She looks no more muscular than the other women who are running track and field. All the women competing there especially the ones in the sprints are much more muscular than the average woman in the street. Muscles come with training at a high level. Look at someone like Serena Williams. No one is saying she is a guy because she has big muscles.
D.B.
@Tommy: The reason suspicions have been raised is that Semenya is pretty much a complete unknown in the elite track & field world, who came out of nowhere to sweep the competition. And she won her races not by a little, but by a lot.
At the elite level, it usually takes years of experience to work your way to that kind of success. Her sudden appearance on the scene is quite unusual.
And also keep in mind that while track & field is an “amateur” sport in the US, in other parts of the world, it’s a big-money, high profile sport. Who knows what the outcome of this will be, but there’s always been lots of incentive to cheat in this sport.
Merv
She’s a man, baby!
tauzty
dumb european poeple
Katherine
D.B. is right — she could easily be intersex, which is basically a “it sucks for her” situation. She’s been raised as a woman. But if she’s not really a woman or she’s intersex, a) her athletic career might be over, and b) psychologically she’s in for a rough rest of her life (rougher than it already has been, as she’s been teased forever.) I hope the best for her.
porshe
this is so stupid to even write this article . leave people alone . is it any of your concern what gender she is ?. do you not have anything better to do with your time ?.
M Shane
She could be intersex (which would be unfortunate as you say Kathrine) but she could also be a sex change. Anyone know how it works with steriods. Remember So. Africa is the country where they’ve done some interesting medical things, like the first heart transplant(Barnard’67).
M Shane
Also , doesn’t sexual trckery date back to the German Nazi’s at the Olympics?
strumpetwindsock
@M Shane:
Oh it’s a bit older than that. Plus I think you are talking about the East Germans (soviets).
Alex Sarmiento
Actually, during the 1936 Olympics, there was a woman named Dora Ratjen who represented Nazi Germany and won a gold medal in the women’s high jump. The problem was that Dora was really a man named Hermann Ratjen. He had ambiguous genitalia. In 1957, he revealed that he had posed as a woman during that time at the mandate of the Nazis, “for the sake of the honor and glory of Germany”.
The East Germans fucked up many of their female athletes but jacking them up with drugs. The most tragic case is that of Heidi Krieger, who was the 1986 European champion in women’s shot put. The steroids screwed her body up so much that, years after the Berlin Wall fell and the reunification of Germany, she decided it was best that she became a man. She had the surgery and is now Andreas Krieger, and now Andreas regularly speaks out on the side effects of systematic doping. (I personally think that the best thing would be for all East German athletes directly affected by doping to hand over all their medals.)
Interestingly, transsexuals do have the right to compete in the Olympic Games.
anony
She’s a 18 yr old new comer who is now world champion. She even said earlier this year she spent about 4 months just playing soccer.
Even supremly gifted female athletes have to have specific elite level training to dominate most competitors, and just beat other women who are also gifted and hard working. A loss of 1 month in that kind of training can be the end of a medal opportunity.
Semenya fooling around on the soccer field for 4 months, them coming out and dominating the world is very questionable.
This isnt about her being muscular, plenty of female athletes more muscular then she is, and they still look like women.
Semenya is not particulary muscular or bulky, she has a very masculine build.
that…along with reportedly being born a hermaphide, and her comparably effortless accent to being a world champion is a valid reason to question.
Celeste
I believe CASTER is a woman who is going to bring a revolution to women in sports. Women and men ARE EQUAL and only sexually dimorphic (in my opinion) because of past oppression by men. I can’t wait until the day when women will play in the NBA…….Men….WATCH OUT……The next generation will DEFINATELY challenge your MANHOOD……….BE AFRAID!!!!!…
Los Angeles Discrimination Lawyer
Give her medals. It’s over!
Chris
I feel bad for her because she probably has been mocked all her life. At least she can be finally do something that she can be proud of. Besides, why are they questioning her gender now after she won. If there was a problem, they should have checked her out discreetly before the race instead of embarrassing her after she won.
sagevb
Well..Well..Well you people never cease to amaze me…first
President Obama isn’t American and now an African Girl/(CHILD) who is literally leaving all people of European persuasion in the dust is suddenly not a female. I am always happy to see the level of stupidity that you’ll stoop to. This is how racist opinions of you are formed. So dumb!!!
anony
@ sagevb
what! how is this racist? I can tell you dont watch the sport. Africans have been dominateing the 800m for quite some time. No one is outraged at her leaveing europeans in the dust. What was shocking was her leaving the top people in the event in the dust, those top people being african. Stupid people are always quick to call someone else dumb.
I think she is intersex, but I also think she should still be able to keep her gold medal. The IAAF’s suspician didnt just start after she won gold. There were allegations before the championships started. I blame the iaaf for waiting so long to run a sex test.
Shawn
More on Caster and gender from an LGBT perspective:
http://tinyurl.com/lc2hwn
Anonymouse
@Celeste
You must be a young and naive 16 year old dreamer.
Testosterone sets men & women very far apart, since it is essential in muscle growth/building.
There are many physical differences between and women, one of them being women have more percentage of water in their body.
A woman can be stronger than a man.
The worlds strongest man is stronger than the worlds strongest woman. This is not sexist. This is just how our bodies evolved.