Athletics gender controversy I’m definitely a woman, not a man – Semenya
Semenya, 18, came to the world’s attention on July 30 after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius. There, she posted 1:56.72, the fastest 800-meter run of the year – even when including senior-level competitors. Competing in her first senior championship on Wednesday, Semenya once again clocked the fastest time of the year – 1:55.45 […]
Semenya, 18, came to the world’s attention on July 30 after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius. There, she posted 1:56.72, the fastest 800-meter run of the year – even when including senior-level competitors. Competing in her first senior championship on Wednesday, Semenya once again clocked the fastest time of the year – 1:55.45 – and finished a whopping two seconds ahead of the defending world champion.
That astonishing margin of victory only added to the speculation that had started after Semenya’s win in July – could the women’s 800-meter world champion be a man? Ahead of the Aug. 19 final, officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track and field’s governing body, confirmed that Semenya had agreed to a gender-testing process that began in South Africa and was ongoing in Germany. Officials wouldn’t give details of the testing, but did say that it involves an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a psychologist, and both internal and external examinations.
Speaking from the rural village of Seshego in South Africa’s northeastern Limpopo province, Semenya’s mother Dorcus told the country’s Star newspaper that she felt jealousy had motivated the rumors about her daughter. “If you go [to] my home village and ask any of my neighbors, they would tell you that Mokgadi [Caster] is a girl,” she said. “They know because they helped raise her.”
Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, also dismissed the claims. “I can give you the telephone numbers of her roommates in Berlin,” he told South African news site News24. “They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide.” He laughed off the allegations, saying the athlete fielded constant questions about whether she was a boy from younger athletes when training.
“Then she has to explain that she can’t help the fact that her voice is so gruff and that she really is a girl. The remarkable thing is that Caster remains completely calm and never loses her dignity when she is questioned about her gender,” Seme told the newspaper. Semenya had been “crudely humiliated” a few times and the closest Seme said he had seen her to anger was earlier this year when some people wanted her barred from using the ladies restroom. “Then Caster said: ‘Do you want me to pull down my pants that you can see. Those same people came to her later and said they were extremely sorry.”
Seme’s suggested test may seem crude, but there’s a precedent for it in the world of athletics. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in the very same stadium where Semenya won her world title, rumors swirled that 100-meter runners Stella Walsh (nicknamed “Stella the Fella”) and her rival Helen Stephens were men. After Stephens took the gold metal, the Olympics committee performed a manual check on her external genitals – and concluded that she was, in fact, a woman.
Ritchie notes that female athletes who in the past have been suspected of being men may have suffered from Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), a condition in which a person who is genetically male – that is, their 23rd chromosome pair is XY – is resistant to androgens, the male sex hormones that include testosterone. As a result, the testes present in that person’s abdomen never descend, and neither they nor their parents ever realize they are actually boys. Those with complete AIS will have a totally female body on the outside, but will lack ovaries and a uterus. Others may demonstrate partial AIS. “They are partly sensitive to the male hormone so they might develop some male characteristics,” he says. “They may well be a bit more muscular and have facial hair.”
It’s those characteristics that Semenya’s competitors see in the world champ, leading them to predict – and hope – that her forthcoming gender results will leave her ineligible to compete with women. “Just look at her,” barked Mariya Savinova, the fifth-place finisher from Russia, following Wednesday’s race. Italian Elisa Piccione, who finished sixth, was equally severe: “These kinds of people should not run with us. For me, she’s not a woman. She’s a man.” She also outran them both – and not even a gender test can change that.
In runner’s village, no doubts on her gender
Her family is outraged at suggestions that Semenya, who has a muscular build and a deep voice, isn’t a woman. “That’s how God made her,” Semenya’s cousin, Evelyn Sekgala, told The Associated Press. “We brought her up in a way that when people start making fun of her, she shouldn’t get upset.”
South African athletics federation president Leonard Chuene insisted Semenya is facing intense scrutiny because she is African. “It would not be like that if it were some young girl from Europe,” Chuene told the AP by telephone. “If it was a white child, she would be sitting somewhere with a psychologist, but this is an African child.” He attributed her 800-meter victory to hard work and rigorous training. “She trains a lot,” Gilbert said. “If you go to the athletics track, you’re sure to find her there.”