Is it a bird, is it a bloke?

raveydavey · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject: Is it a bird, is it a bloke?

http://www.heraldscotland.com/spo...emenya-a-man-or-a-woman-1.823805#

CASTER SEMENYA lustily sang her country’s national anthem last night at the medal ceremony for the 800 metres which she’d won the previous evening.

Nobody could hear how deep her voice was. It was drowned by the anthem and the cheers of the crowd.

But nothing will silence the storm of controversy surrounding the ongoing investigations into the gender of the new world champion, and anger in South Africa over her plight.

This is a potential human tragedy on a huge scale, played out in the glare of global publicity. During the day, her hotel was under siege. The team’s media manager was taking no calls.

Nick Davies, International Association of Athletics Federations director of communications, said last night: “This has to be very carefully studied, and decisions will be considered carefully. A number of experts will gather, and will agree. I have absolute sympathy with her.”

The official investigation could take weeks. An endocrinologist, a gynaecologist and a psychologist are part of the team.

The complexity of the situation can be judged by further remarks from Davies: “As she was not cheating, why take her medal? In a juridicial sense it is very complex. This is in the high realms of legal theory. She may be stripped of the medal. We just can’t tell.”

There was no shortage of opinion, or of outrage, in her native country.

Davies admitted there had been “heated discussion, a frank exchange of views”, between the IAAF and the South Africa governing body.

Semenya’s masculine looks and voice had been noted in Pune last year where she beat Scotland’s Lynsey Sharp into bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Should the issue not have been addressed after that, by the South African authorities, I asked. “Probably,” admitted Davies.

Semenya’s 80-year-old paternal grandmother, Maputhi Sekgala, told The Times of South Africa she was untroubled: “It doesn’t bother me that much, because I know she’s a woman; I raised her myself.

“She called me after [the heats] and told me that they think she’s a man. What can  I do when they call her a man, when she’s really not a man? It is God who made her look that way.”

However, she admitted that her granddaughter had been teased at school for her looks, and for being the only girl on the local football team. The Sowetan, a tabloid newspaper, which headlined her: “Our Golden Girl” quoted her father, Jacob: “She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times. For the first time South Africans have someone to be proud of, and detractors are already  shouting wolf. It is unfair.  I wish they would leave my daughter alone.”

Her mother, Dorcus, told the Star newspaper of South  Africa, that everyone in their village knew the allegations were false: “Mokgadi Caster is a girl, and no one can change that,” said the mother-of-six at her home in the village of Seshego in Limpopo province.

Eric Modiba, Semenya’s former headmaster, was “very, very proud”. But he admitted: “She was always rough and played with the boys. She liked soccer and she wore pants to school. She never wore a dress. It was only in grade 11 that I realised she’s a girl.”

Michael Seme, Semenya’s coach, had stopped at a petrol station in Cape Town recently and when Semenya tried to enter the women’s toilets, she was stopped by attendants. “Caster just laughed and asked if they would like her to take off her pants to show them she was a woman,” he said.  Pointedly, he told reporters: “I can give you the numbers of her room-mates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the shower.”

Elisa Piccione, the Italian who finished sixth in the final, was damning: “For me, she is not a woman.” But Britain’s Jenny Meadows, who won bronze, was full of sympathy, shaking her hand at last night’s medal ceremony. “It was a circus,” she said. “Absolutely bizarre. I feel sorry for Caster. It’s really not a nice position to be in.

“It’s for the IAAF and South African federation to sort out. I don’t think she should have been put in that position at all . . . She didn’t make much eye contact with anybody. I think she was half embarrassed by the whole situation herself.  I just really feel for her.”

On the possibility that she might receive silver in a few weeks, she was horrified. “I’ve not allowed myself to think that. I’ve joked a few times that I’d rather have the bronze, because if I do get upgraded to the silver, I was only three hundredths of a second off the gold. And that would probably haunt me forever.

“If I did get upgraded not many people would know about it. I hope for the sake of everyone in the competition that I do keep the bronze, and third place is legitimate.”

Earlier this year, Sarah Gronert, a 22-year-old German tennis player competing on the WTA tour, had her gender questioned when it was revealed she was born with male and female genitalia. She had surgery aged 19, and is now legally a woman.

Medical opinion that absence of male organs is not proof of gender, and genetic testing is open to question. What’s in little doubt is that this 18-year-old has the world’s best at her mercy. Mercy is a quality the sport will need in abundance now.

What an unusual state of affairs and how on earth is an 18-year old meant to deal with the pressure of the worlds media?

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wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

She was interviewed shortly again yesterday and seemed to be handling it strikingly well.

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30 Mill · Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 8:34 pm Post subject:

The media is a disgrace these days - no factual reporting, mere story-telling and gossip mongering

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wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:15 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 10:17 am Post subject:

wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 2:14 pm Post subject:

30 Mill · Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 11:38 pm Post subject:

Never the medias fault is it

Always sensational front page news, huge headlines, hue n cry - yet when proven wrong, small print apology on page 13

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wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:17 am Post subject:

[quote="30 Mill"]Never the medias fault is it

Always sensational front page news, huge headlines, hue n cry - yet when proven wrong, small print apology on page 13[/quote

But this is a case where the fact that it's big news is the fact that the IAAF have fucked around with it. The media has to make a living as well you know they don't print a big story like this people don't buy their product.

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30 Mill · Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:23 pm Post subject:

And what happens if shes proven to be a chick?

The damage is done - people will always associate "her" with being a fella

Why does it need reporting NOW. Why couldnt it wait untill the IAAF had done the tests?

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cardboardbox?Youwerelucky · Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:54 pm Post subject:

I saw sky interview her mum, she said that the investigation was a huge kick in the bollocks for her daughter

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30 Mill · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:59 pm Post subject:

^^^^ pmsl ^^^^

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wewantourdarbyback · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:33 pm Post subject:

raveydavey · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject:

In a cruel twist of fate, it is widely reported that her name is an anagram of "Yes A Secret Man".

Rolling Eyes

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30 Mill · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:33 pm Post subject:

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