Thursday, May 19, 2011

Could Caster Semenya Be a Man?

A South African runner name Caster Semenya who won the 800 meters run in Berlin. Semenya is 18 year olds that came to the world attention when she won her event fro the fastest 800 meter run in 1:56.72. That is the fastest run of the year. Semenya did it again with another faster time of 1:55.45 in the 800. Her astonishing margin of victory added that she could be a man. On Aug. 19 officials from International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) confirmed that Semneya has agreed to a genders test. The testing involves an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a psychologist, and both internal and external examinations.

People believe that Semenya is a man because she won by a margin. She won by a lot. And also that she is very muscular and that she looks masculine. Her parents say that she is indeed a woman.

Back in 1936 Berlin Olympics there were rumors that 100-meter runner Stella Walsh nicknamed “Stella the Fella” and her rival Helen Stephens were men. After Stephens won the gold metal the committee performed a manual check on her external genitals. Conclude that she was in fact a woman.

Dr. Rob Ritchie, a urological surgeon at Oxford University and author of “Intersex and the Olympic Games”. His recent journal says that determining someone’s sex is not as simple, and that external genitalia can be misleading.

Caster Semenya has been cleared from last august that she could compete as a woman. It has been a year since she had a controversial gender test that put her career on hold. The woman that ran with her in the 800-meter run said that she was a man. One of them is Elisa Piccione of Italy who came in sixth place said that she is ‘not a woman. She is a man’. Mariya Savinova of Russia, who finished in fifth said to just look at her.


Terrance Honanie KIN 338I T/Th 2:00-3:15

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