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Caster Semenya's won gold medal in tonight's 800m. but turns out people think she might be a man because she's big and manly looking. They're talking about gender tests? But did anyone test Fatima Whitbread?

It's bloody racist- just cos the poor girl isn't good-looking?

Agree. It's dreadful. But they must have good grounds for suspicion otherwise they wouldn't announce something as peculiar as 'gender testing'.

It really is a scandal. How the hell did the authorities raise this question TEN minutes before the girl was racing?

If this really was a concern based on some sort of evidence - like dope tests or something relevant to gender testing - it would have happend off the pitch months before.

It's a disgrace and the girl, if she has any benefactors in her circle, should sue for defamation, libel, distress etc etc

I heard on the radio this morning that the girl's former teachers said she was always being taunted for looking like a boy and at school races had previously been forced into the toilets so that rival schools could verify she was a girl. Honestly, she's got some masculine qualities but many female athletes who get this far do - look at Martina Navratilova? Fatima Whitbread, Tess Sanderson

Seems a bit of a reactive decision. If there were doubts surely someone would have raised them long before a World Championship final, no??

It was badly handled but the authorities were put in a very difficult position by the fact that she came from nowhere to run the best time in the world this year about 3 weeks before the Worlds a 7 second improvement on her personal best in a year.

Then she bettered that time in the championships. They did not have cause to do it earlier, and it will take time to conduct, so the rumours will fly.

Her win seemed a complete anti-climax and that will be very sad if she passes the test.

She didn't even do a victory lap:

'Yet while Jepkosgei and Meadows - a brilliant third - went off for laps of honour, Semenya was ushered away by officials, straight past the hordes of waiting journalists.' - BBC

It doesn't matter if it only came up shortly before the race. This is so personal it should not have been publically aired. The poor girl.
She has been questioned all through school, her teachers said.
According to one of the papers today there is a condition called androgen phenotype which 1 in 20,000 have. They are born boys, but don't develop male gonads because of the low levels of testosterone. Many don't realise until they try and have children. If this is the case, this is just awful. It is entirely racist and this girl should sue

I don't think its racist, its just a surreal order of events...I suppose we will see in the next few days what the story is

Vinny

Just read this on the Irish Times  - three times the normal level of testosterone found

 

http://www.ireland.com/home/Semenya_gender_row_takes_new_turn/maxi/fast/news/irnews/237092

This is just out of control now.

So the woman has three times the normal level of testosterone for a woman.  But what they dont' say in this article and most others which are scandalously reported is that the normal level of testosterone for a man is 30 TIMES MORE than a woman

Come on Irish Times - be a bit more responsible