The athlete Semenya from South Africa at the centre of a gender row has testosterone levels 3 times those expected of a woman. What will happen next? Will she have been judged to have committed a doping offence?
New twist in athlete gender case
- Thread starter pwill
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Thing is I don't get why this gender test is so hard? I mean they're doing blood test and crap and it makes no sense to me at all when all they have to do is ask to undress and look and be like, "Yeah, okay." I mean it makes me wonder what is wrong with people these days. Too much policy, too much crap going on. I mean even if she did a sex change operation, that would mean she has a lot of money and all that, and why would they go through all that just to win the female running games? Couldn't they just use the money they spent for the sex change and just train an actual woman? Common sense should be applied here.
I was watching the news and they were saying that one could have the physical characteristics of a woman, but have stuff that men have e.g. voice, testosterone levels, lack of boobs etc its not a question of undressing someone. 
is Dr Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German coach (East Germany ran a massive doping programme) is puzzling. I would have thought that the coaches/doctors of players banned for drug use are banned from working with other athletes.
is Dr Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German coach (East Germany ran a massive doping programme) is puzzling. I would have thought that the coaches/doctors of players banned for drug use are banned from working with other athletes.
I'm pretty positive there is a huge, huge difference in one area that could easily identify a person as a female or male.
In anycase, I agree this shouldn't have been brought to public attention. They should have kept it in house unless proven otherwise, in which case no one has even proven one way or the other.
In anycase, I agree this shouldn't have been brought to public attention. They should have kept it in house unless proven otherwise, in which case no one has even proven one way or the other.
The athlete should sue the IAAF for leaking details which should be confidential - they sent a fax to the wrong person and leaked the story to the media. Then the IAAF allegedly tried to get South Africa to drop her from the games. Would the IAAF have done this if Semenya was from UK, the USA or Australia?
Some people are born 'intersex' meaning they have both sexual characteristics. Normally at birth the parents make a choice and one set of external characteristics is removed through surgery. It may be very difficult to tell was born with a male hormonal system if they had surgery at birth unless internal examinations are carried out.
As she's a woman with 3x normal testosterone levels and they don't suspect steroids (why is that) then they obviously need to run tests which go further than pulling her shorts down
As for not telling people, I read today that it is thought a fax was send to the wrong number by mistake which released the information
Okay, that's what they say about the fax, but I'm sure they didn't think that. It could have been an accident, but still they should handled it better.
Anyway, as far as intersexual, I highly doubt that applies here. The problem is that there are too many policies going around these days and people just don't take one or the other. It's like they have to "prove" it all the way. I mean in whatever the person worked very hard to get where she is today and yet they decide to do this and probably caused her a lot of anger. I mean if she is really a he, then I'd say that is wrong, but they still haven't proved it one way or another. Just a bunch of silly reports about hormone levels and stuff that makes no difference.
What makes you think it doesn't apply here? She looks like a man, seems to have the testosterone of a man yet has no external male sexual organs. It seems like it might be a good possibility.
And did you just say that hormone levels don't make any difference?
I agree. The *first* thing that came to mind was she was a human hermaphrodite.......
Yeah, and this woman has been raised by her grandmother, it would be interesting to know what happened to her mother. What if the mother gave the OK for the surgery and didn't tell anyone through embarrassement? If that were the case then the athlete herself may have no idea.
I read that the headmaster of her old school said that all the teachers thought she was a boy until she hit 16/17 when she suddenly switched from wearing boys clothes to skirts. If she has any kind of sexual confusion then these tests might actually help put her own mind at ease over her sexuality as it sounds like she might have been confused as a teen
Much like what I read about on the ISNA site:
The thing that gets me is what if she is? then what? It's not like she *choose* to do this so would they disqualify her?
On that second link I posted it goes through some scenario's and says what's accepted and what isn't, like complete androgen insensitivity being accepted even though the female has XY chromosomes
Crazy stuff really but if this woman is producing more T than usual because she's really man then she has to be banned whether it's her fault or not as she has such a high unfair advantage over other competitors, in my opinion anyway
But I *think* she can produce more T and still be a woman. Which begs the question, how do we determine where the line is drawn?
I don't think bolt should be able to race anymore. He has genetic characteristics that make it unfair towards the others. He has a higher percentage of type II fibers, as well as long legs and the ability to keep a high frequency with those long legs.
Just playing devils advocate. If she really just is a genetic freak and she hasn't done anything wrong, then who's to say we can ban her? Genetic freaks are seen all the time in sports.
Just playing devils advocate. If she really just is a genetic freak and she hasn't done anything wrong, then who's to say we can ban her? Genetic freaks are seen all the time in sports.
The only reason that there is a controversy in gender ambiguity cases is that gender is used to create classifications within a sport. Other types of genetic freakiness do not bend the classifications like gender ambiguity does.
Pretty much self-explanatory
I'm dragging this up again because there is some new news:
Semenya withdraws from race amidst reports she's hermaphrodite
Caster Semenya withdraws from event amid gender firestorm - More Sports - SI.com
Semenya withdraws from race amidst reports she's hermaphrodite
Caster Semenya withdraws from event amid gender firestorm - More Sports - SI.com