September 10. 2009

The Sydney Morning Herald, published a report today, stating World Championship gold medalist Caster Semenya, is a hermaphrodite with external female genitalia, no womb or ovaries and internal male testes.

The report has not been confirmed by the International Association of Athletics Federations, but the news has to be very upsetting for the 18-year-old track star, who left her competition in the dust at the World Championships last month in Berlin, Germany.

She should not be stripped of her medal, as it does not appear to be a conscious decision to cheat and she has suffered enough. The IAAF previously stated she can keep her medal.

Secret of Semenya's sex stripped bare

September 11, 2009 - 12:17AM - THE world champion 800m runner Caster Semenya has been revealed to have male and female sexual organs, posing an ethical and political quandary for the sport's ruling body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and her home nation, South Africa.

Extensive physical examinations of Semenya, who is just 18 and from a remote village in the country's far north, has shown the athlete is technically a hermaphrodite. Medical reports indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone...

Late last night the IAAF was trying to contact the athlete to inform her of the results. After her domination of the world titles in Berlin last month, Semenya was given exhaustive blood and chromosome tests as well as a gynaecological examination...

"This is a medical issue and not a doping issue where she was deliberately cheating," an IAAF spokesman, Nick Davies, told the Herald.

"These tests do not suggest any suspicion of deliberate misconduct but seek to assess the possibility of a potential medical condition which would give Semenya an unfair advantage over her competitors. There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this."...

http://www.smh.com.au