Word: semenya
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South African runner Caster Semenya's muscular physique helped propel her to victory during the 800 meters at Wednesday night's world track and field championships in Berlin. Now that physique, coupled with an ongoing gender verification test, is fueling suspicion that Semenya could be stripped of her medal because she is actually...
...Semenya, 18, came to the world's attention on July 30 after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius. There, she posted 1:56.72, the fastest 800-meter run of the year - even when including senior-level competitors. Competing in her first senior championship on Wednesday, Semenya once again clocked the fastest time of the year - 1:55.45 - and finished a whopping two seconds ahead of the defending world champion. (Read "A Brief History of the World's Fastest Human...
That astonishing margin of victory only added to the speculation that had started after Semenya's win in July - could the women's 800-meter world champion be a man? Ahead of the Aug. 19 final, officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track and field's governing body, confirmed that Semenya had agreed to a gender-testing process that began in South Africa and was ongoing in Germany. Officials wouldn't give details of the testing, but did say that it involves an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a psychologist, and both internal and external examinations...
IAAF director of communications Nick Davies stressed that the organization does not believe Semenya has been masquerading as a woman to give herself an unfair advantage. "It's a medical issue. It's not an issue of cheating," he told reporters before the final. Davies also said that the IAAF was trying to handle this sensitive situation as delicately as possible. "She is a human being who was born as a woman and who has grown up all her life as a woman, but who is now in a position where this is being questioned." Because there...
Speaking from the rural village of Seshego in South Africa's northeastern Limpopo province, Semenya's mother Dorcus told the country's Star newspaper that she felt jealousy had motivated the rumors about her daughter. "If you go [to] my home village and ask any of my neighbors, they would tell you that Mokgadi [Caster] is a girl," she said. "They know because they helped raise...