Caster Semenya Results Leaked

International News, By Joal, 10th September, 2009

In reports this morning Caster Semenya’s gender identification tests have been leaked. The Sydney Morning Herald’s report indicates that the female identifying athlete is technically intersex.

Recently appearing on the cover of South African magazine You, reports indicate the recent test results have not been officially confirmed and as yet Semenya may not have been informed.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) says it has tried to contact Semenya with the results, but has been unable to partly due to Athlete’s South Africa’s (ASA) failure to help or cooperate – a claim the ASA deny.

South African 800m runner Semenya was subject to questioning and a raft of tests after her gold medal win at last month’s World Athletic Championships in Berlin. Her crime? She looked a little too masculine and ran a little too fast for a female competition.

On Tuesday the IAAF said regardless of results of Semenya’s gender test, the organisation would not strip her of the gold medal.

The athlete made headlines when she was escorted from the track and asked to prove her gender after last month’s win, but it seems the headlines haven’t stopped. You magazine, the biggest English-language magazine in South Africa, has Semenya as it’s cover girl. Wearing a stunning black dress, jewelry and new hairstyle in the latest issue, Semenya told You, “I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses, but I never get the chance. I’d also like to learn to do my own makeup.”

Speaking about the tests and questions surrounding her gender, Semenya said, “I don’t give a damn what people say about me. I see it all as a joke, it doesn’t upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself.”

“There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this,” spokesperson for the IAAF, Nick Davies, said. “This is not a doping case at present, so it shouldn’t be considered as one where you have a retroactive stripping of results.”

In the past, all female athletes were subject to gender identification tests. Currently, the IAAF chooses to request tests on a ‘case by case’ basis. Critics of the debate surrounding Semenya say that she is obviously not a man masquerading as a woman, and that her genetics, or the science surrounding the case, are irrelevant.

IOL news website, based in Africa, reports that that the IAAF have the results of the gender identification tests and have tried to get in contact with Semenya, but have been unable to.