The South African sports ministry announced that Caster Semenya will be allowed to keep her gold medal, which she won by setting a new 800-meter world record at the Berlin International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) championships last August. Semenya is allowed to keep the prize money awarded for winning the race. The ministry went on to say, "Whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor. As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things."
The ministry's delayed attempts at maintaining Semenya's gender test results as "a confidential matter between patient and doctor," may be too little too late.
Caster Semenya has been made a spectacle. People view her as some kind of freak or monster and her gender identity fell under attack simply because she excelled in the sport of her choice. In September of this year, it was rumored that she had no womb or ovaries and possessed both male and female sexual organs. These reports remain unconfirmed, but the damage has been done. And for her inconvenience, the IFAA has issued the following apology, "It is deeply regrettable that information of a confidential nature entered the public domain."
Caster Semenya outran poverty in her village where unemployment is 80%. She outran the pain of being a social outcast. She has outrun every woman and man in the history of track and field. It remains to be seen if this phenomenal young lady can outrun and continue to overcome tremendous obstacles to maintain sanity and any degree of a positive self-image in the face of personal humiliation and ridicule at the hands of humanity.
Comments
Go Caster! I am saddened that when someone, a human being, unexpectedly (many times a person of color) attains a sought-after achievement, that others will make attempts to taint it in some way, not to mention damage the person and their reputation in the process. I can think of so many that this has happened to and it is shameful. Let one live without the ridicule or condemnation from those who fear change.
Its sad but necessary to test for gender. I feel for her but what about the young ladies she beat? Are they suppose to just sit back and let someone with questionable gender compete with them? As for this being some sort of racism, well thats just ignorant.
Robbie, you are correct. Fair is fair. But the callous treatment of this young girl's privacy is unacceptable; even in the name of 'fairness'. There are many ways this travesty could have been avoided --- the simplest being gender testing BEFORE the competition. I agree with Kelly that this scenario may have been handled more delicately had the subject been white. Let's not fool ourselves about the history of South Africa. That would be ignorant.
Another article about this subject that tackles intersex births as a more common occurrence than we suspect:
women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article6922193.ece
Maybe classifying athletes by gender instead of other relevant features is outdated. Caster Semenya is a world-class athlete, period, and deserves recognition for her achievements. There is no reason in the world why she shouldn't compete.
Mapachtli, you could be correct. The universe is changing everyday.
For the most part female athletics are separated from male athletics based upon the same sexist reasons that prevented females from playing at all.
Its my understanding that from the beginning females wanted to compete with the males.
I imagine if they are classified like boxing and if its true and women are worse then they will be the "feather weights" of many sports but again based on size and ability that would make sense.
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