South African runner Caster Semenya will keep her 800-meter gold medal from the world championships, and the results of her gender tests will be kept confidential, the South African sports ministry announced today. It was previously reported that the test results would be released this month, but according to The Huffington Post, the sports ministry said that the results would be “treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor. As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things.”
It’s easy to assume that since Caster is keeping her medal, the results indicate that she’s female. But gender testing is a lot more complicated than that; Australian newspapers said in September that Caster has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone. The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny those reports. Caster’s fans in South Africa were in an uproar that the IAAF had invaded her privacy to begin with – what do you guys think?
Caster was expected to keep her medal regardless of the gender test findings because she did not cheat; any advantage that she has is from the way her body has always been. I hope this matter can be put to rest and she can keep doing what she loves – running!
Comments
KS
November 19th, 2009 - 10:32:48 AM
Although she may not have cheated, she is competing against women. She would have an unfair advantage if she is a biological male. If the results show she is genetically a male, then she should not be able to keep the medal and should compete with the men and not the women from here on out.