Caster Semenya is the most recent women’s track and field athlete to be scrutinized for being a man.
AP photo
Apparently, her first place finish in the 800 meters in the IAAF World Championships in Berlin, Germany of 1:55.45, only two seconds in front of the next finisher, along with her muscular physique caused a big enough stir in the track and field community that her gender is being questioned.
This isn’t the first time that a female track and field athlete’s gender has been questioned. This has been an ongoing topic since the 1930’s and still isn’t an exact science to declare with one hundred percent certainty that someone is male or female. There are genetic, physical, and psychological abnormalities that can play a part on a person’s makeup. The common ascertain to differentiate women and men is that women have two X chromosomes and men have an X and a Y chromosome.
Polish sprinter Ewa Klobukowska failed one of the first gender tests in the 1960’s. Even though she passed the physical exam, she failed the gender test as result of having one chromosome too many, which chromosome was never reveled but it was believed that she had XX/XXY mosaicism and she was subsequently banned from the professional ranks of the sport.
A more recent case is Santhi Soundarajan, a distance runner from India that was stripped of her 2006 silver medal after undergoing a gender test in which it was declared that she did not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman. It is believed that she suffers from Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome in which an individual may carry the male XY chromosomes and have undescended testes, but the body is feminine is all respects because the body isn’t responding to the testosterone that’s being produced to give the muscular characteristics of a male. Tragically, it was said that Soundarajan attempted suicide shortly after this ordeal.
Unfortunately for Semenya’s case, the head coach for the South African team is Ekkart Arbeit who when he coached East Germany in the 70’s and 80’s was accused of steroid abuse among his athletes. One thing is clear from recent interviews and articles about Semenya, is that she continually proclaims her innocence in any wrong doing.
Comments
Great article. I'm glad you didn't add to the scrutiny, rather you brought to light other runners who have had to submit to gender testing. Personally I believe she is a woman but I wonder if steroids are involved.
Jesus get to the punchline already, is this amazing athlete a female or male?
"She" may be neither male nor female in the typical sense of the word. Ie. may have typically female genitals, but typically male chromosomes: XY. This makes her intersex so depending on your viewpoint, she is either BOTH male and female, or neither male nor female.
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