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Caster Semenya ‘had high testosterone levels’
The gender row is reignited as the South African 800m gold medallist returns home
As Caster Semenya, the South African champion 800m runner at the centre of a gender row, returns home to a heroine's welcome, it has been reported that 'gender verification' tests ordered by International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) show an unusually high level of testosterone in the 18-year-old's body.
The Daily Telegraph claims that a source close to the IAAF investigation has confirmed that preliminary tests show a level of the male hormone three times higher than normal for a female.
The IAAF test was ordered before Semenya won the 800m women's final in Berlin last Wednesday - a stunning victory that has been overshadowed by the subsequent row among Semenya's rivals who, because of the South African's powerful physique and deep voice, question whether she is really a woman.
The Telegraph also reveals that the head coach of the South African running team is Dr Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German coach who was famously accused by shot-putter Heidi Krieger of giving her so many anabolic steroids that she was forced to undergo a sex-change operation in 1997. She now calls herself Andreas and lives as a man.
However, the Telegraph admits that is unclear how closely Arbeit has been working with Semenya, and that he long ago expressed his regret for the part he played in East German athletics before the Berlin Wall came down.
None of this will dent the enthusiasm of Semenya's close friends and supporters, many of whom have insisted in recent days that she is a real woman, just a very strong gone, and who are expected to be out in force when she flies into Johannesburg today.
"We must celebrate our athlete's victory despite the attempts by racist institutions to undermine what she has achieved. We are proud of her," said Floyd Shivambu, spokesman for the ANC Youth League, which accuses the IAAF of racism for ordering the gender test. ·
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Beautiful comment, Alan Scott!
I'm leaving the question of sex/gender totally aside here, not because it is unimportant, but because what needs to be equally emphasized is that, generally speaking, the limits for most racing and jumping sports have been attained as far as training and competing cleanly are concerned. From now on, it's the pills and the injections (or other such cute tricks, such as slick little swimsuits, as the recent controversy in swimming has shown us, may the most high-tech speedo win). But for competing solely as grand nature has made us, we've pretty much hit the limit. This obviously entails basically no more record breaking and it makes the obsessive goal of breaking multiple records every year a very different endeavor than it was decades ago, when there was still much room for clean improvement.
The current insane objective to always break a record is driven enormously by the sports ring masters. It is also enhanced by the media industry's design of sports programming targetted for a not very wise public. There is an equally obsessive lust for medals, resulting from various contaminated, but complementary agendas. One is to reinforce political ideological superiority and nationalistic jingoism. Another is to exploit all aspects of attaining media celebrity, because this paves the way to more glory, more privileges, and, of course, ties into the third very important goal: heaps of money. All of this is inimical to ethical principles and attitudes.
Athletes are often intensely glorified if they win gold, in contrast to being sternly demeaned if they win second (as if there was an enormous difference). If they lose beyond third, they are often humiliated and punished by the nastiest reactions, as if they were a total failure, even when they show an excellent performance overall. You can be the fourth fastest runner out of all the billions of other little humans on the planet, but you didn't bring home a medal, and certainly not a gold one, so, I'm sorry, you're worthless and you're a disappointment to the nation. It is so insane.
Even though most people don't like the fact that sports have become inundated by doping, nobody boycotts anything because of it. The money in sports only gets bigger, the politicians are always on the lookout to exploit their next little hero/shmero, and the drugs just keep getting stealthier. And, of course, the public must have their circus. All sports have come a long way about doping controls, but the problem is certainly very, very far from being solved; too far, in my opinion.
I have thought for some time that it was time to divide sports competitions between clean and drugged. It is not a matter of ideals, but of pragmatism. Since we cannot stop the doping because of all the factors briefly outlined above, not excluding yet others, let us bring it out into the open. I only saw one commentary on the Internet along these lines, related to the current African hermaphrodite train wreck. The basic idea is that everything concerning drugs in sports would be allowed. The only rule is that each athlete would need to inform the list of drugs they had been taking. Therefore we would have that Athlete A had beat the world record by 10 seconds while taking X, then Athlete B by taking Y, etc., etc. And then we would have the "lame" ones, who would never again beat a world record, but who would race clean. At the end of the games, we would have the clean records, the drug X records, the drug Y records, etc.
Of course, it would only be a matter of time before we discovered that Athlete A beat the drug Y record while really taking drug Z, but I would still prefer this more transparent sports scheme to what we have now.
If Dr Arbeit (=work!!) is anywhere near SA athletes or athletics, even by pigeon post, the SAAA simply asked for it. They are either unutterably naive or plain stupid; or both.
Further, why is Dr A allowed anywhere near athletes at all? Did not the IAAF ban him for life? If they didn't, why not?
As for this unhappy person Semenya, perhaps a career beckons as the counter-foil to the great Farinelli?
And Dr A could forge a new career in trans-sexual surgery in Singapore.
Joking aside, this is a disgraceful, terrible matter for Athletics, and may well push aficionados to Wrestling, where at least there is no pretence about the shenanigans.
If caster had not won the Gold Medal there would not be this fuss.I think it is disgusting how she is being treated.I am English
From all I've seen and then heard - 'her' voice - I must say that this definitely looks like an impersonation!
Has Floyd Shivambu looked at the original birth certificate or any other proof that Semenya is a female.
I'm sorry, but all impressions both visual and vocal point to a complete rip off!
Get the proof and then we'll go along with you!
I listened to "Her" on Sky news last night. I am a woman and I was 18. With a voice like hers I find it impossible to believe that he is a she.
Does the Federation have rules about testosterone levels?
If not, please leave the young lady alone. I am amazed at how people are behaving, and how this matter has been dealt with.
This is the 21st century and people are supposed to be so civilized. Instead they are "we-weeing" all over Semenya; no wonder the race card is played so often. If she has broken the rules the matter should be dealt with in an appropriate manner.