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Zimbabwe female athlete 'was man'
BBC NEWS ^ | 2-9-05

Posted on 02/09/2005 12:21:15 PM PST by Taylor814

One of Zimbabwe's leading junior athletes, who has won several gold medals in women's events, is really a man, police say. Samukeliso Sithole, 17, has been charged with impersonation.

At her court appearance, she insisted that she was a woman, despite a doctor's report to the contrary.

Ms Sithole said she was born with both male and female sexual organs and a traditional healer had made the penis disappear but it had since regrown.

She told the court that the penis had returned because the healer had not been fully paid for his services.

She said that she had already arranged to pay the healer on 3 March, the day her trial is set to start, and so she expected her penis to disappear once more, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.

Multi-talented

The state prosecutor said he wasn't sure whether to keep Ms Sithole in men's or women's remand cells.

The BBC's Steve Vickers in Harare says that there has been a great deal of interest in the case with radio phone-ins full of speculation.

One caller said that Ms Sithole had won gold medals for Zimbabwe and so should not be punished.

The case came to light when somebody told one of Ms Sithole's friends and fellow athletes, Melita Mudondiro, that she was really a man.

Ms Mudondiro had undressed in front of Ms Sithole in the belief that she was a woman and lodged a formal complaint to the police.

The multi-talented athlete has competed in regional tournaments in triple jump, javelin and shot-putt, winning several gold medals.

The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe is yet to comment on the matter.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: ahayes

Well, he was a steer in Zimbabwe, then a bull, then a steer again...


41 posted on 02/09/2005 1:57:17 PM PST by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: Taylor814

This just brings images of John Lithgow in "The World According to Garp"

42 posted on 02/09/2005 2:14:03 PM PST by Smedley (I'm better than dirt. Well, most kinds of dirt. I mean not that fancy store bought dirt.)
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To: All
Deluxe version.
43 posted on 02/09/2005 2:16:39 PM PST by dighton
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To: AnnaZ; HangFire; dead

The devil is in the details....


44 posted on 02/09/2005 2:19:20 PM PST by Feiny (Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.)
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To: JustAmy

Limerick ping!


45 posted on 02/10/2005 1:28:53 PM PST by PreviouslyA-Lurker (Some Americans don't understand that being an American is more than living in America.)
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To: henkster

Ya mean if I don't pay the doctor my sinus infection will come back? darn!


46 posted on 02/10/2005 1:34:07 PM PST by Ditter
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