Caster Semanya's gender fiasco manages to get worse. E-mail correspondence found by the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian shows that her team doctor Harold Adams and athletics boss Leonard Chuene did indeed know that Semenya was tested in South Africa before the World Championships in Berlin but kept Semenya in the race even after they found out that her test results were "not good."Semenya crossed the 800-meter finish line a full minute before her competitors. Her time, coupled with her supposed virile looks, prompted championship officials to order a gender test.
Allegedly, after arriving in Berlin on Aug. 9 with Semenya, Adams received a call from the Medforum Medi-Clinic, saying that Caster's gender test results were problematic. Adams supposedly instructed Chuene and other ASA officials to pull Semenya from the competition, but they refused.
This latest news from the Guardian is quite controversial, because Chuene originally insisted that Semenya had not been tested before Berlin. When evidence came out that she was tested, he insisted that he had no knowledge of it.
According to a Guardian source:
Mlangeni-Tsholetsane [ASA events manager] said they couldn't withdraw Semenya, because they needed a medal at all costs. Chuene didn't even bother to brief the athlete about the developments around the tests and the implications. They destroyed an innocent girl because of a medal.
By now, everyone knows that Semenya was reportedly found to be a hermaphrodite. The 18-year-old star is supposedly on suicide watch.
For more of the story, read 'Semenya Saga: Chuene's Trail of Lies.'
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Comments: (14)
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By: Mia P on 9/18/2009 6:20PM
That is so wrong what they have done to that young Lady, and her family knew and they should have told her not to run because they would have found out you know how people are when they hate people that can out do them in different things, and the coaches should be fine because of what they have done for a medal and money people are so evil, I hope she is alright and I'm praying for her and her family.
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By: Melaniki on 9/18/2009 7:30PM
This is not a matter of lashing out at a hemaphrodite, a medical condition. It is about FAIRNESS and HONESTY in Truth. Caster's endogenous testicles leak out male hormones which give males advantages in strength, speed and endurance. There are DIFFERENCES between males and females as there are between lions and birds. Different is NOT deficient it is DIFFERENT. Each has its own strengths and weakenesses. The point is a man should not be allowed to compete against women in certain sports that give him an advantage anymore than women should do the same. Who would pit a wheelchair athlete against a champion sprinter? It's about FAIRNESS not discrimination. The women are cheated in this competition. You train to compete against WOMEN AS WOMEN not women as males or vice versa. Though there are those who will try to make this about gender or race, in this case it is not nor should be.
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By: ahsaki2 on 9/25/2009 2:10PM
Thank you: you got it right. It's about fairness. The difference between Semanye and the women with whom she ran is that she has a degree of maleness that exceeds theirs, which in all probability led to her winning. THAT'S THE REASON MEN AND WOMEN ARE NOT PLACED AGAINST EACH OTHER, inasmuch as males will more likely than not win because of the way God made them compared to women.
It's not about beating up on Semanye, though my heart goes out to her. It would seem that in her case, she's MORE male than female and should, if possible financially and if it is her desire, have an operation to transition to a full male identity. As a female, she lacks ovaries, a womb, the full female reproductive system, yet according to what I read, everything inside her that would make her male in an undescended state. She has the mannerisms and physique, virtually everything needed to make it a more logical choice than going throughout life presenting herself as female, when the reality is that she is some of both and more one than the other. But, again, it is her choice, and I pray to God that she'll be okay emotionally and psychologically. THAT's the main concern as far as she goes, not winning a competition, which she won unfairly.
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By: eloise lewis on 9/18/2009 7:44PM
If she knew, she should have dropped. Allowing others to help her decide on the side of continuing sealed her fate. She should embrace her beauty and her gifts and learn from history. She has a world of hope ahead.
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By: Griffin on 9/18/2009 7:48PM
No one restricts women with PCOS, a condition in which ovaries produce testosterone. No, they ONLY EVER go after the millions of WOMEN born with an intersex condition.
She cannot control how she was born and in the end, it is all sour grapes from the other competitors. The others are not nearly as dedicated or as good as she is, and they are jealous.
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By: Songbyrd on 9/18/2009 10:09PM
I agree with what you have said whole heartedly. I
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By: RENEE' on 9/18/2009 10:22PM
SHE IS A HUMAN BEING. LEAVE HER ALONE. GOD LOVES HER. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP HONEY.
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By: ED on 9/19/2009 2:41PM
Thank you for keeping this in its proper perspective. God does love her and I have a feeling he will deal with people who find this a matter of humor or ridicule,
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By: PeteRocks on 9/19/2009 3:45AM
The Team Doctor and the Athletics are Monsters.
She only going to do what they tell her to do;she trusted them to help her win fairly.They Abused her for status and still are losers. they should be horse whiped.
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By: Leah on 9/19/2009 3:28PM
I truly feel bad for this woman. She didn't know about her condition and neither did her family. I think it should not have been put in the media like this.now she is on suicide watch. I truly hope she doesn't do it. Like it or not, she was raised female, even if her biology says otherwise. Imagine how you'd feel if at 18 you found out everything about you is a lie? For 18 years she has not known about her condition and it comes out now like this? I pray that her family is there for her and that she knows that she will get through this.
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