Caster Semenya withdraws from race in South Africa ("Woman" Track Winner May be Hermaphrodite)

Guardian.co.uk ^ | September 11, 2009 | David Smith

[BradtotheBone]

Athlete Caster Semenya has pulled out of her return to competitive sport amid growing fears over the psychological impact of rumours about her sex. The 18-year-old withdrew from a cross-country race in South Africa tomorrow after it was widely reported that a leaked sex test reveals she is a hermaphrodite. Her coach, Michael Seme, said she will not run because she is "not feeling well". South Africa condemned the international media reports as an invasion of the teenager's privacy and threatened a "third world war" if the women's 800m champion is disqualified from athletics.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Dashwood is right...never a case of fully functioning male and female organs.

When I am certain of something, I never let go...

---

btw...women have some testosterone too...it goes up when they drink and makes them hornier

Not once have I EVER tried to influence a woman with alcohol... maybe twice...

Sort of like the Bill Clinton equivocation... "I never once had sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky..."

Technically speaking, Clinton didn't have sex with Monica, it was never a fertile contact in the sense it wasn't coitus.

And he didn't do it once, just a couple of times.

Whenever the press reports something, anything, there is an agenda behind what they print or report and this occurs every single time. This lesson is lost on too many...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Without getting into semantics about the ‘H’ word there seems to be several ways of determining this person’s sex:

1) External genitalia
2) Internal sex organs
3) Secondary sexual characteristics
4) Sex hormone levels
5) DNA

IMHO #5 is the gold standard.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Without getting into semantics about the ‘H’ word there seems to be several ways of determining this person’s sex:

1) External genitalia -phenotype
2) Internal sex organs -phenotype
3) Secondary sexual characteristics -phenotype
4) Sex hormone levels -phenotype
5) DNA -genotype

IMHO #5 is the gold standard.

Yes, the scientific standard... ding, ding, ding... we have a winner... just not for the Olympics...

[Yaelle]

I feel bad for her as a teen and as an athlete. Her dreams are over. She can’t run for either team. Poor thing.

[muawiyah]

None of which matters. The word was hijacked from the ancients who knew NONE of the science behind modern definitions and sensitivities.

Ergo, for literary (and popular press) purposes the word can mean "something that looks like" ~ whether it functions or not.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

The word was hijacked from the ancients who knew NONE of the science behind modern definitions and sensitivities.

Obviously many are just as ignorant...

Plato said, 'the many AS many are ignorant.' It still holds true...

[wardaddy]

Why can he not run for the men. He is a man.

I will guarantee you he has a johnson.

If he did not, they would have immediately pushed naked pics of him everywhere.

There is a PT Barnum aspect to all of this.

[normanpubbie]

I'm don't see any reason to feel sorry for Caster Semenya.

Setting aside the question of whether Caster is male, female, or something in between, one thing is certain: Semenya is a world-class athlete. In an all-woman competition, Caster finished first. In an all-male competition, Semenya might not finish first but won't finish last, either.

Caster Semenya became a national hero in South Africa by beating the world's best, and will won't lose that status even if all of the titles are stripped away.

Sure, Caster is muscular and mannish-looking, but so are many world-class female track and field athletes.

I see a bright future for Caster Semenya because the talent and ability are still there.

[SkyPilot]

South Africa condemned the international media reports as an invasion of the teenager's privacy and threatened a "third world war" if the women's 800m champion is disqualified from athletics.

Just wow.