By Mark Gleeson
CAPE TOWN, June 20 (Reuters) – Caster Semenya’s overriding
priority this year is to leave three years of controversy behind
her by adding the Olympic 800 metres gold medal to her 2009
world title.
The South African’s emphatic victory in Berlin raised
questions about her gender and started a verification process
that still clouds her achievement.
She had emerged from obscurity to win gold in one minute
55.45 seconds, the fastest time of the year and a remarkable
improvement on the times she had been clocking only months
earlier.
The strength and power of the unknown 18-year-old as she
destroyed the field down the final stretch prompted the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to
order an investigation into possible drug use and ask for a
gender test.
The inquiry set off a long-running controversy, marked by
media leaks, accusations and insults that enraged her home
country and severely affected a shy girl from a rural village.
Semenya’s sexuality became the subject of widespread debate
and kept her off the track for almost a year before the IAAF
cleared her to run again. South Africa’s sports minister
threatened “a third world war” if the world athletics governing
body tried to ban her.
The results of the gender tests have never been published.
But Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported in late 2009 that they
showed that, while she had female genitalia, she was also born
with undescended testes which provided her with three times the
amount of testosterone present in an average female.
Fellow runners branded her a man and said it was unfair they
had to compete against her.
Continued…
