| Archive for everythingleeds.myfastforum.org |
| raveydavey |
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 |
She was interviewed shortly again yesterday and seemed to be handling it strikingly well. | ||||||
| 30 Mill |
The media is a disgrace these days - no factual reporting, mere story-telling and gossip mongering | ||||||
| wewantourdarbyback |
Well in this case that's all they've got to go on because the news is a rumour and the IAAF are investigating whether it's true so it needs to be reported. |
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| raveydavey |
Hmmmm, I don't know if I'd agree with all that. Had she failed a drugs test, her identity would be kept anonymous until the "B" sample had also been tested and found positive. So if you're potentially a drugs cheat, your identity is kept quiet until you're actually proved to be. Bit of double standards there, perhaps? |
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| wewantourdarbyback |
Not the media's fault though. The rumours came directly from the other athletes who weren't happy and the IAAF made a hash of how it was dealt with. The Media don't report drug names either because they have been banned from doing so or they do not know, there are no double standards from them, just the IAAF. |
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| 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 |
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| wewantourdarbyback |
[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 |
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 |
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 |
^^^^ pmsl ^^^^ | ||||||
| wewantourdarbyback |
Why shouldn't it be reported now? If people didn't want it getting out the IAAF shouldn't have bloody told everyone should they? I shall repeat what doesn't appear to have gotten into your skull: It was the IAAF and her fellow athletes who announced it to the world the media merely followed up on that. |
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| raveydavey |
In a cruel twist of fate, it is widely reported that her name is an anagram of "Yes A Secret Man".
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| 30 Mill |
Im reporting you as a child molester - Hey Nonce-boy, how would you like that spread all over the media? (S)he may we be a bloke You may well be a nonce But surely you are presumed innocent untill proven otherwise - before the media smear your name forever |
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