It ain't gonna be over anytime soon
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1063599 TESTS have revealed that South African track star Caster Semenya has no womb or ovaries, according to a report on the Daily Telegraph website.
Athletics’ world governing body, IAAF, is said to be ready to disqualify Semenya from future events and advise her to have immediate surgery because her condition carries grave health risks. They have reported also not ruled out stripping Semenya of the 800m world championships gold medal she won in Berlin last month.
The Daily Telegraph reported that tests showed that Semenya, 18, was a hermaphrodite - someone with both male and female sexual characteristics. She has three times the amount of testosterone compared to a normal female. The newspaper quoted a source saying the test revealed she had internal testes, the male organs which produce testosterone.
According to the report, the IAAF has been hesitant about banning Semenya and revoking her gold medal because of the backlash from South Africa, where a protest has been lodged against the IAAF with the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, accusing the federation of racism and sexism.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source familiar with the IAAF inquiry into the Semenya affair explained the political as well as personal sensitivities involved.
"There certainly is evidence Semenya is a hermaphrodite. But the trouble is the IAAF now have the whole ANC and the whole of South Africa on their backs," the anonymous source was quoted as saying." Everything is going to have to be done absolutely by the book, no question of a challenge to our findings.’’
"There’s all sorts of scans you do. This is why it’s complicated. In the past you used to do a gynaecological exam, blood test, chromosome test, whatever. That’s why they (the findings) were challenged, because it’s not quite so simple.
"So what they do now is they do everything, and then they can say look, not only has she got this, she’s got that and the other. The problem for us is to avoid it being an issue now which is very personal: of the organs being a hermaphrodite, of not being a ’real’ woman. It’s very dramatic.
"Of course Caster is a totally innocent victim in this whole affair,’’ the source explained. "What could she do about it? And the IAAF accepted her entry. So the two parties at fault are the IAAF and especially Athletics SA. The South Africans have got a massive responsibility, but no one seems to be attacking them.
"Basically they (ASA) have known for months, for years, that she’s not normal. They could have set in process these kind of tests if they had been more responsible.’’