By Neil Wilson Last updated at 1:28 AM on 06th November 2009
Caster Semenya has received an unconditional apology from Athletics South Africa for their mishandling of the gender row which followed her 800metres win at the World Championships.
ASA president Leonard Chuene, the board of ASA and its members have been suspended by the country's Olympic governing body pending a disciplinary investigation into the affair.
Six weeks ago Chuene refused to resign despite admitting he had lied when he said there had been no gender verification tests carried out on Semenya, 18, before the Berlin event.
Semenya, who had improved 15 seconds in 12 months, was acclaimed as a national hero on her return from Germany. There was outrage in South Africa when it emerged the IAAF world governing body had carried out a gender test.
Yesterday's apology is the first implicit admission the fault lies in South Africa. It is now accepted that tests on Semenya before the World Championships - showing she had three times as much testosterone as a normal woman - led to ASA's doctor recommending she be withdrawn.
The IAAF's own tests in Berlin are believed to have found Semenya has male and female characteristics and she could be stripped of her medal. It is more likely a second gold will be awarded to Kenya's Janeth Jepkosgei, with Semenya being told she could return to the sport after surgery and one year's treatment.
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It will be interesting to see where this goes. ms semenya is thougght to have AIS. I have read else where she will be required to undergo surgery before being allowed to compete again. If this is true it represents one of the most reprehensible breaches of human rights imaginable.
ReplyDeleteAIS and PAIS are both differences currently alowable under IAAF rules.
Athletics continues to trash the lives and rights of Intersex.
THE CASE OF CASTER SEMENAYA AND IAAF GENDER TESTING
ReplyDeleteDuring the last 43 years the IAAF has been conducting GENDER TESTING, as has the IOC, leaving behind a gruesome trail
of abused and mistreated athletes, broken careers and broken lives.
In their frightful ignorance they have been playing god, deciding over human beings, not concerning sport, but concerning the
very nature of human beings, by what method they, in their hopeless stupidity, have seen fit at any given time, changing their
methods all along as soon as one method after the other was deemed wrong and useless.
The leaders and their medical “experts” have acted as the witch doctors of modern time.
And now at last, after all these years, the ivory towers of these self appointed gods and kings have collapsed and their
wrongdoings have been disclosed to all the world. With the CASTER SEMENAYA case they have finally been forced to admit that
they do not know how to decide the gender of a human being !!
That is what I have been telling them ever since 2003, but they refused to listen, and when I persisted, they refused me my
democratic right of speaking at the IAAF Congress.
And mind you, it is today the general assumption among experts who are dealing with this issue that 1 out of 2000
is born with some kind of INTERSEX CONDITION, so it is not only about Caster Semenaya - IT IS A GLOBAL ISSUE.
Thanks for your comment, Georg. Please keep speaking up. It is a global, human rights issue.
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Curtis
The link above my comments is not correct.
ReplyDeleteThe right one is:
www.123hjemmeside.dk/gender_testing
I have changed the link.
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Curtis