Semenya a hermaphrodite, Australian report
Gender tests on South African athlete Caster Semenya have found she
is a hermaphrodite, an Australian newspaper reported on Friday, as a
senior official admitted she may not be "100 percent" female.
Sydney's Daily Telegraph, citing an unnamed source involved in the
tests on the world 800m champion, said she had both male and female sex
organs and no womb or ovaries.
"There certainly is evidence Semenya is a hermaphrodite," the source
was quoted as saying. Pierre Weiss, secretary-general of the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), earlier told
AFP that Semenya was "possibly between two sexes".
"It is clear that she is a woman but maybe not 100 percent," Weiss
said, adding that the case would be decided by the IAAF executive
council in November.
"We have to see if she has an advantage from her possibly being
between two sexes compared to the others."
The furore has enraged South Africa's ruling African National
Congress (ANC) party, which called testing the 18-year-old "sexist and
racist".
The IAAF has said Semenya is unlikely to be stripped of her world
title earned last month in Berlin, but confirmed four athletes in
earlier cases were "asked to stop their career".
"The trouble is the IAAF now have the whole ANC (African National
Congress party) and the whole of South Africa on their backs," the
source said.
"Everything is going to have to be done absolutely by the book, no
question of a challenge to the findings."
She added: "The problem for us is to avoid it being an issue now
which is very personal: of the organs being a hermaphrodite, of not
being a 'real' woman. It's very dramatic."
Semenya, whose coach has quit over the controversy, has called the
row "a joke" and undergone an image makeover in which she posed for a
South African magazine.
"There's all sorts of scans you can do. This is why it's so
complicated," the source said.
"In the past you used to do a gynaecological exam, blood test,
chromosome test, whatever. That's why they (the findings) were
challenged, because it's not quite so simple.
"So what they do now is they do everything, and then they can say
look, not only has she got this, she's got that and the other."
Weiss admitted the IAAF was struggling to deal with the complex case,
which will be decided at the November 20-21 executive council meeting.
"We still don't have all the results and those we do have must be
submitted to experts for evaluation," he said. SYDNEY, AFP |