Caster Semenya update

I had dinner with Hazel Clark and several other elite athletes at the USATF National Convention. She captivated my attention. Hazel is a dedicated young woman with professional acumen and a strong desire for international competition. It would not surprise me if Hazel were to be moved up into the 800, that she would gracefully decline. She is a class act.

This should have been done way before the meet started. Once She/he is running you have to let it run!

Hazel probably already accepted defeat and is partying around Berlin. I know I would. She is desperately hoping that the South African turns out to be a woman.

Greystone wrote:

I had dinner with Hazel Clark and several other elite athletes at the USATF National Convention. She captivated my attention. Hazel is a dedicated young woman with professional acumen and a strong desire for international competition. It would not surprise me if Hazel were to be moved up into the 800, that she would gracefully decline. She is a class act.

if you were born male with undifferentiated genitals, you could be surgically reassigned as female, OR if you were born and raised without sophisticated medical evaluation, your family may assume you were female and raise you as such, even though you were indeed genetically male (this may be the case with caster).

Greystone wrote:

I had dinner with Hazel Clark and several other elite athletes at the USATF National Convention. She captivated my attention. Hazel is a dedicated young woman with professional acumen and a strong desire for international competition. It would not surprise me if Hazel were to be moved up into the 800, that she would gracefully decline. She is a class act.

i don't understand how declining her spot in the final would be 'class act'-y at all?

if a man was ahead of her, she should be in the final, and declining her spot would just be stupid

some coked up brit wrote:

Caster's build is only similar to Mutola's in that s/he is very muscular. Mutola has quite female hips and breasts however and more of a female facial structure (smaller jaw than male jaws.)

How can you say Mutola has a feminine jaw?

She looked as much like a man as Semenya does.

Noooooooooooooooooooooo, I picked Her/Him/it to win!

Why is it that the ambiguously gendered athletes so often pick the 800 as their event?

chrisdiaz16 wrote:

i don't understand how declining her spot in the final would be 'class act'-y at all?

if a man was ahead of her, she should be in the final, and declining her spot would just be stupid

That's what he meant.

epopians wrote:

How can you say Mutola has a feminine jaw?

She looked as much like a man as Semenya does.

http://www.ahof.co.za/images/mutola.gif

Are you freaking crazy?

Mutola was butt ugly, but she did have some rare hints of femininity here and there.

Semenya on the other hand is just a dude.

It could be that an African's idea of undeveloped male genitalia is substantially different from the western world's standards. Hell, he could have 5 inches, and his disappointed family would immediately designate him a girl.

cultural differences? wrote:

It could be that an African's idea of undeveloped male genitalia is substantially different from the western world's standards. Hell, he could have 5 inches, and his disappointed family would immediately designate him a girl.

I used to be embarrassed about my two inches.....

...........

But then I found out the ladies like it that thick!

More scandal wrote:

Edinanci Silva

Heidi Krieger

Dora Ratjen

Stella Walsh

Santhi Soundarajan

Lots of 'em

You left out Jelimo.

But...we were USED to Mutola! This one is creeping us out! (Plus Maria at least had the decency to use a Gillette Mach 3 before races)

epopians wrote:

How can you say Mutola has a feminine jaw?

She looked as much like a man as Semenya does.

[/quote]

whirledpeas wrote:

if you were born male with undifferentiated genitals, you could be surgically reassigned as female, OR if you were born and raised without sophisticated medical evaluation, your family may assume you were female and raise you as such, even though you were indeed genetically male (this may be the case with caster).

I'd assumed that Semenya knew that s/he was either male or ambiguously gendered all this time- that it was an act of deliberate deception. If that's not the case, it seems rather terrible to make it this far through life believing yourself a woman, and as soon as you thought you were achieving something, being stripped of your gender identity in front of the whole world.

epopians wrote:

How can you say Mutola has a feminine jaw?

She looked as much like a man as Semenya does.

http://www.ahof.co.za/images/mutola.gif

Even in that photo Mutola has more feminine lips than Caster

I don't know if this has been posted but this I think this is a pretty good image:

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6853370,00.jpg

From this article:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25950768-11088,00.html

Im not sure..

She/he looks very masculine, however,

her lack of attempt to conceal her genetic traits makes me think:

She is avery masculine, gay teenage girl, with friends who are of a slightly rougher orientation..

Weight training makes one produce more testosterone than most people and can even prompt facial hair growth..

Over and above this, there is probably some genetic issue potting. For all intents and purposes, I hope to goodness the issue is resolved and the SA Athletics board should never have allowed her to compete at all, until such time as genetic tests were cleared on an international level.

( I sure hope Caster proves them wrong )..

Hi all

Figured I might as well comment - Rojo's post on page 2 of this thread referred to an email, which is actually one I sent, so I might as well "break the silence" on Caster.

Being in South Africa, it's obviously a highly sensitive issue here right now. I was interviewed by a journalist yesterday, and she mentioned that she had been trying to get hold of ASA (Athletics South Africa) for comment, but that they had refused to return calls and were not responding.

The problem is many-fold. First, gender testing is very complex. It's not a simple process at all. In fact, the case of Santhi Soundarajan proved this, because apparently she passed a test in 2005, and then failed it in 2006. many experts are calling for the gender testing to be scrapped because of the prevalence of false results. That said, you can't just scrap it because we know what would happen if you did (Stella Walsh).

I think Semenya is a victim in this, and she is currently being hung out to dry by local authorities. They will claim ignorance, when in fact, they have known all along that there is a problem and reason to be concerned. I have it on good authority that this allegation has followed her since school, which means that ASA have had years to sort it out, not the 3 weeks they might claim.

I have also been told that ASA did "Test" her, but I can't confirm the details of this test. Suffice it to say that the test is very complex, and requires experts from a number of fields - gynecologists, internal medicine, endocrinologists, psychologists and geneticists. I seriously doubt that ASA went to these lengths.

Therefore, what we have here is an avoidable situation, because since Semenya ran 2:00 this year, it's been obvious that she would reach a higher level eventually. ASA failed to act properly, either out of ignorance or wilful negligence, and the result is that Semenya, regardless of the verdict, will take the brunt of the flak. As some of you have said, how does she respond to boos and negative press, basically for the rest of her life?

Finally, just on the process of gender testing, I'm looking into it in as much detail as I can, and will definitely do something on it when I have enough information. We must remember that at this stage, it's still unconfirmed (at least, it is as I write this), and so only when the facts are known, we'll be in a better position to decide.

Anyway, lets see what happens...

Ross Tucker

http://www.sportsscientists.com