It’s bloody Allan Wells with a perm 
Lol.
I personally think she looks more like Roger Daltrey!
Maybe, but her voice was much deeper.
Actually, I bumped into Jarmila at Gothenburg 1995 and you wouldn’t have know she was ever an athlete. She lost all that definition and muscle mass and so had softened completely. Amazing reversal abck to what we think of as femininity… she was doing a radio coverage of the worlds at that time.
South Africa turn on own over Caster Semenya
By Mike Hurst
From: The Daily Telegraph
September 15, 2009 12:00AM
Gender misfit … Caster Semenya. Source: AP
ATHLETICS South Africa bosses are now squirming under the same international spotlight to which they cruelly exposed their gender misfit Caster Semenya.
National head coach Wilfred Daniels, who recently resigned from ASA over his role in duping Semenya into submitting to sex tests in early August, yesterday blasted officials for casting Caster to the wolves.
"All Athletics South Africa cared about was getting medals … they never thought about what they were doing to Caster,’’ Daniels said.
In a world exclusive, The Daily Telegraph revealed last Friday that 800m world champion Semenya was a hermaphrodite, or intersex person, who has internal testes but no womb or ovaries.
Daniels was speaking in response to comments from Phiwe Tsholetsane, ASA’s manager of events, marketing and communications who is also Semenya’s self-appointed manager.
Tsholetsane told South Africa’s The Star newspaper: "Our constitution does not recognise gender verification … how could we have stopped her from competing? Our mandate was to come back with medals … how would we have explained not allowing Caster to run to the minister [of sport]?
"If there are other Casters out there, we will also let them run.’’
Daniels said Tsholetsane’s comments were symptomatic of "a win-at-all-costs mentality that has destroyed a young woman’s life’’.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READ FOR BEING BOTH AMUSING AND WISE
Monday, September 14, 2009
Semenya case poses a real dilemma for IAAF
LOCKER ROOM: The world athletics body must balance the needs of a young national hero with the obligation to be fair to her fellow-competitors, writes TOM HUMPHRIES
AS A columnist – even a slumdog columnist living here in the intellectual shantytown that is the back page – there is a duty to have a position on absolutely everything. The union insists on it. In the great universe of sport a sparrow shall not fall without us columnists taking positions on the dubious trajectory which preceded its terminal splat.
(Fall? Was it a dive? Is this what Eduardo has taught the little sparrows? Was the sparrow pushed? Was there drink involved? Kinky sex games gone wrong? Ron Atkinson? What about the ‘on the decline of sparrows as a force’ etc etc). It helps too if you can have not just a position but an accompanying rise in your blood pressure which you can express through the medium of bad prose. This gift of being angry 52 times a year at least is what separates the truly gifted columnist from the journeyman hum and haw merchant or the lame humorist. Even those of us ambidextrous types who do our humming and hawing through the medium of lame humour yearn for some surge of strident anger with which to add a little bile to the back page.
Every so often, though, a subject comes along which lends itself only to humming and hawing. Leaving aside the unfortunate leaks and the exquisite sensitivities, what would you do with a girl like Caster Semenya? It is impossible to have any (oh, God) hard and fast opinions on a situation which shifts its moral fulcrum every time you look at it from a different angle.
Perhaps the only thing we can be sure of is the IAAF are as supremely ill-equipped as the rest of us for dealing with a situation which requires them to balance the needs of an 18- year-old national hero against the obligations of fairness to all the other national heroes who compete in the 800 metres.
The rules on testosterone ratios which were imposed to police sport against drug cheats have always been a little blurry at the border and have necessarily erred on the side of generosity. The natural ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in the body should be 1:1. The current world permissible ratio as laid down by WADA is 4:1 and, in cases where this ratio is exceeded, carbon isotope ratio tests are capable of detecting the fingerprints of synthetic testosterone as opposed to the testosterone we generate naturally through what we eat.
And the rules are there for a reason. To protect other competitors and to protect the integrity and dignity of sport because without those things sport is meaningless.
What’s to be done, though, if through some genetic quirk a female competitor is born with the internal equipment to produce abnormal amounts of testosterone within her body? The Sydney Daily Telegraph, which carried the purported leak from the tests performed on Caster Semenya, claims the tests prove she has no womb or ovaries, but internal male testes which are producing extraordinary amounts of testosterone.
There is a duty, first of all, to the tender sensibilities of the 18-year-old girl involved in the current case. The manner and volume of the current inquiries and leaks concerning her physiological make-up have been unacceptable in a situation where there is no suggestion of doping or cheating.
An otherwise normal life, crowned by the fulfilment of a World Championship win, has turned into a nightmare from which it is difficult to see any escape. The word which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald will always hang like a captioned verdict over Caster Semenya if and when people see her compete again.
Caster Semenya has acted with dignity throughout and the spikily protective manner in which the people of South Africa have reacted to the controversy is understandable. Over the weekend the sports minister, Makhenkesi Stofile, waded in saying it would be unjust if Semenya was precluded from competing as a woman and that any attempt to remove her world title from her would mean “a third world war.” What, though, to do in the long term? If Caster Semenya were a doping cheat whose ratio turned up a figure as off the scale of 18:1 the clean competitors in her event would have the right to expect to be protected. Gender tests are nothing new in athletics and the old East German sports machine specialised in chemically turning young women into men.
One German sports physician described Olympic sport as “a gigantic biological experiment carried out on the human organism” over the past 100 years.
It was only right and proper that stringent doping laws should attempt at least to protect clean athletes from dirty rivals and to protect dirty athletes from themselves. How many doping cheats have we heard from down through the years who have claimed that the freakish toxicity found within their body was just a natural thing caused by their toothpaste or too much sex or watching television etc, etc? We protect the sport and other competitors from those we find guilty.
What to do, though, when nature just hop- skips an innocent competitor to the place where every cheat wants to get to? What to do when, through no fault of her own, a young woman winds up with genetic advantages which are off the scale?
Most great athletes come to this earth with some sort of genetic advantage. Sportspeople and scientists will debate long and hard the reasons for the dominance of Kenyans and Ethiopians in middle distance running. Are there genetic or environmental reasons for their extraordinary dominance? There is a sensitivity about the subject of racial biology which has been notably absent from the current debate about gender biology but the same assumptions underline a lot of the debate from the forlorn old notion that black fast bowlers were, for genetic reasons, impossible for the solid white cricketer to deal with, to the notion that white men can’t jump.
There is no doubt black dominance of athletics in particular and sport in general has prompted many quiet and often ill-informed discussions and arguments as to whether there is a biological superiority at play. Nobody on either side of the debate suggests a return to mono racial sport, however.
What to do with Semenya, though? Are her genetic advantages any more unfair than those accruing to a seven-foot ten-inch basketball player or an extraordinarily supple gymnast? Does her innocent arrival at a place where cheaters aspire to go automatically make her presence in a race unfair?
Sympathy for her is easy right now. How would we feel though if we added some partisanship to the mix? If Sonia O’Sullivan back in the day was among the also-rans behind a Caster Semenya, not once but again and again. Would we be threatening world war three? When Sonia was running we had hard and fast opinions about many of her rivals, including one hirsute character who had such a crop of facial stubble that her nickname among the other athletes was a play on her surname and on the word beard.
Caster Semenya’s case raises more questions than there are answers. The IAAF, used to being cast in the role of flat-footed policemen, find themselves in an odd cleft where they have to achieve a balance between humanity towards an innocent young athlete and fairness to her rivals.
We columnists who are supposed to have a position on everything can only hum and haw till we see what position the IAAF takes. Then, whatever it is, we’ll confidently denounce it.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF ATHLETICS SOUTH AFIRCA 12TH AND 13TH SEPTEMBER 2009, HPC
Author: ASA
RESOLUTION 1:
12th IAAF World Championships, Berlin, Germany
The General Council;
1.1 Congratulated Ms. Mokgadi Caster Semenya, Mr. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi Mr. Khotso Mokoena and the 
for their excellent performance at the 12th IAAF World Championships.
1.2 Congratulated all the athletes who participated in these championships though they did not make it to the final in their respective events.
1.3 Congratulated the president and the management team for success of the team in Berlin and dealing with all other issues that arose in the best interest of athletes.
RESOLUTON 2
IAAF/ASA dispute
2.1 The General Council approved of the manner in which the President Mr. Leonard Chuene and the management of ASA handled the issue affecting one of its athletes with the IAAF.
2.2 The General Council endorsed the report presented by the President regarding the events leading to current dispute with the IAAF. :o
2.3 The Council noted with concern that, contrary to its position as the custodian of athletics in the World, the IAAF:-
•Did not follow their constitution and procedures in dealing with the matter;
•Failed to observe the confidentiality required to handle the matter of this sensitivity; and the human rights of the athlete;
The Council therefore called on the IAAF to apologize to the athlete, her family and the people of South Africa. :lol:
2.4 The Council further urged the IAAF to refrain from communicating with Athletics South Africa (ASA) through media statements and use official communication channels.
2.5 The Council request the media to report this matter with the sensitivity and discretion it deserves and observe the athletes right to privacy, respect and dignity.
2.6 The Council instructed Mr. Leonard Chuene to withdraw his resignation from the Council of the IAAF and resume his responsibilities in that body as mandated by Athletics South Africa (ASA) and the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
2.8 The Council commended ASA for the support given to the athlete and further urged that the support continue beyond this period.:o
2.7 The Council appointed a scientific and a legal panel to take up this matter with the IAAF.
•The legal panel will be led by James Evans and Koos Pansegrauw, while
•The scientific panel will be led by Rishi Hansrajh and Professor Tim Noakes.
2.8 Athletics South Africa confirmed its support and confidence in the President Mr. Leonard Chuene, that he had handled the matter exceptionally well and advised him to continue defending the athletes.
2.9.1 The Council mandated the ASA President to engage the Government through the Ministry of Sport & Recreation and the Portfolio Committee on Sport on ongoing basis until the matter is concluded.
2.10 The Council thanked the people of South Africa for their unwavering support from the time this matter surfaced until now. The people are urged to continue supporting the athlete and the Federation in the quest to restore her dignity, human rights and right to privacy.
Who is she
Jarmila Kratochvilova, world record holder in the 800m.
I am deaf and have no sound on this computer, I read lips when talking to people and she looks female around the mouth. I have also coached several female athletes one who had a chest like a teenage male, she commented one day in the gym that if she didn’t have pecs she would probably pass as a bloke.
CASTER SEMENYA was so humiliated when South African officials put her feet in stirrups for an examination and photographs were taken of her genitalia that she rang and sent text messages to friends to complain.
Semenya underwent the two-hour examination on August 7 at the Medforum Hospital in Pretoria, according to South African athletics team manager Wilfred Daniels, who was speaking to a local South African radio station.
Daniels’s revelations have thrown the spotlight on Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene, who has repeatedly claimed that there was no testing done before the Berlin World Championships, where Semenya won the 800m title. Chuene has denied the testing took place.
Daniels has since quit his athletics position in protest at the treatment of Semenya before the world titles. He claims officials lied to her, telling her the tests were for doping reasons. Apparently present with Semenya at the time of the medical examination - ordered by the Athletics South Africa general manager, Molatelo Malehopo - were her coach Michael Seme and the South African team doctor Harold Adams.
Dr Adams is also the personal doctor of the South African president, Jacob Zuma.
Daniels said on radio: ‘‘The worst part was that she thought she was going for doping tests … she was in no way prepared for what happened. The truth will come out when Caster finally gets the chance to say what happened.’’
Daniels then told the newspaper Beeld: ‘‘The tests took almost two hours and Semenya became frustrated and even angry over the humiliating nature of the tests. Her feet were in stirrups when the photographs were taken.’’
IAAF officials ordered gender testing on Semenya the day of her 800m final following complaints from other countries. The IAAF has been trying to contact Semenya to organise a meeting but has been frustrated by the blocking tactics of South African officials. But a series of emails between Dr Adams and the IAAF from early August show South African officials were aware of the gender issue in relation to Semenya, yet allowed her to travel to the World Championships.
Adams is understood to have told the South African authorities back in August that Semenya should not compete in Berlin. Since the outcry about Semenya’s victory and subsequent IAAF gender testing, Adams has yet to speak out.
Meanwhile Semenya, who has featured in a women’s magazine, told the South African television show Eyewitness News that she had stopped reading papers and listening to radio broadcasts.
I’ve been following this issue daily, even reading a lot of the correspondence (particularly in the South African paper, The Star, and on various radio stations in RSA). In the last two weeks, as more light has been shed on the sequence of events in this awful nightmare for Semenya, the vast majority of public attacks have switched largely away from the IAAF and the author of the leaked findings on Semenya’s intersexuality, towards Athletics South Africa and its leadership.
This whole saga has been a fraud from the start with ASA knowing full well Caster should not compete in women’s athletics.
They were warned professionally by Dr Harold Adams that if she ran in Berlin she would surely win and then ultimate grief would follow inevitable investigations into her gender. Chuene’s response to Adams was “thankyou very much; you are no longer the team doctor”.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost and the blowtorch is being focussed and turned up against Chuene and his thugs.
But perhaps the real culprits who need to be exposed are the African National Congressl (ANC) who are now the governing political party in RSA. Many are former “freedom fighters” and it seems that for whatever good they have accomplished, there is still a brutal mentality that permeates the ANC micro-culture.
As I understand it from friends in South African athletics and from CF forum members who live in the RSA, the ASA leadership have close ties to the ANC and used that connection to infiltrate ASA and bring in their cronies. Which would not necessarily be a bad thing, except that some (all?) of these leaders have neither the background in athletics nor the capacity to lead their national federation in a way that is wise or humane: to wit, the Caster Semenya matter.
The whole Semenya saga, as it unravels, has been a case study in deception, poor judgement based in poor values and it has become a hoax played out on the world by the ASA’s president Chuene. Either he is an idiot or he thinks everyone else in the world is. Probably both.
At no stage has Chuene displayed any understanding or compassion for Semenya’s circumstance. But he cries crocodile tears, cries foul against the IAAF which his ANC cronies have branded “sexist” and “racist”.
There has been nothing accidental about this whole scam. It was contrived from the start by a ruthless bunch at the top of ASA. This was brought to you by the same kind of “bottom-line” brutes who thought contracting Dr Ekkart Arbeit, one of history’s greatest mass dopers and himself a former Stasi spy, as their coaching consultant for the last couple of years, was swell idea. Arbeit, for those who don’t know, was the representative of athletics on the small committee which planned doping of every sportsperson (except sailors and some gymnasts) who ever wore the pale blue of East Germany - all 10,000 of them - under State Plan 14.2.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-18-semenya-saga-chuenes-trail-of-lies
Semenya saga: Chuene’s trail of lies
LUCKY SINDANE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 18 2009 06:57
An exchange of emails between the doctor of the South African athletics team, Harold Adams, and Athletics South Africa boss Leonard Chuene makes it crystal clear that Chuene knew Caster Semenya was gender-tested in South Africa before the World Championships in Berlin last month.
Chuene’s denial that he knew of any tests conducted locally before the tournament is one of a string of lies exposed by a Mail & Guardian investigation.
The email, which the M&G has seen, was sent by Adams to ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo and copied to Chuene on August 5. The World Championships began on August 15.
It reads: “After thinking about the current confidential matter I would suggest that we make the following decisions. 1. We get a gynae opinion and take it to Berlin. 2. We do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin. Please think and get back to me ASAP.”
An emailed response from Malehopo to Adams, sent on the same day, reads: “I will suggest that you go ahead with the necessary tests that the IAAF might need.”
Chuene has repeatedly maintained that no tests were conducted in South Africa before the tournament. He has also denied that ASA authorised and paid for the tests.
Chuene has defended his decision to field the 800m champion in Berlin, by saying that “no reasons were given to him on why he should withdraw Semenya from the championships”.
The M&G can reveal that Semenya was tested at the Medforum Medi-clinic in Pretoria early last month and that she received counselling from ASA board member and psychologist Laraine Lane beforehand.
The tests were conducted by Oscar Shimange, a medical doctor specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology.
CONTINUES BELOW
Approached for comment, Lane said this week: “I cannot discuss issues regarding my clients. I can’t deny or confirm anything; it would be a conflict of interest if I did that. I would like to help you, but I can’t.”
Chuene has also claimed that Adams, who was commissioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to oversee Semenya’s gender tests in South Africa, is not the official doctor of team South Africa.
In an ASA press release about the final team for the World Championships in Berlin, sent out on August 4 and in possession of the M&G, Adams is listed in the team’s management as “team doctor”.
President Jacob Zuma’s personal physician, Adams arrived with Semenya on August 9 in Neubrandenburg, Germany, where team South Africa was based.
A senior official close to ASA said that when team South Africa was in Neubrandenburg, Adams received a call from Medforum Medi-clinic informing him of Semenya’s gender test results, which were “not good”. The results can take up to two days to arrive after testing.
The official said Adams then convened a meeting with Chuene, ASA vice-president Kakata Maponyane and the events manager of team South Africa, Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane. Adams advised them to withdraw Semenya from the competition, but they refused. Adams had also examined sprinters Kagiso Kumbane and Tshegofatso Meshoe, and advised that they should be withdrawn because of injury. The ASA had obliged.
Another official told the M&G: “Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said they couldn’t withdraw Semenya because they needed a medal at all costs. Chuene didn’t even bother to brief the athlete about the developments around the tests and the implications. They destroyed an innocent girl because of a medal.”
Efforts to get comment from Adams proved fruitless, as he did not return the M&G’s calls.
A senior athletics official who knows Chuene well said: “Chuene has been lying to the nation from the onset. It’s time for him and his crew to tell the truth, apologise to the nation and resign.”
The official said before the Berlin championships Adams received an email from the IAAF raising concerns about Semenya’s gender.
Adams had responded by sending the email already described to Malehopo and Chuene seeking advice on what action to take. After consulting Chuene, Malehopo responded, authorising gender tests.
“The arrangements were made and Semenya was taken in for tests accompanied by her coach, Michael Seme. There’s just no way that they didn’t know about the tests,” said the senior official.
Contacted for comment, Malehopo denied giving Adams the go-ahead. “That is interesting news to me. If people have evidence they should bring it forward and we will take it from there but I don’t know anything.”
He said he knew nothing about his August 5 email to Adams. He also promised to respond to questions to him and Chuene, but neither had done so by the time the M&G went to print.
ASA’s Maponyane has stood by Chuene, claiming that Adams had given no reason for withdrawing Semenya from the competition. “He only said that he was waiting for the results from South Africa but did not explain further. And that is when we learned that Semenya had undergone gender tests in South Africa. We want to know who authorised those tests to be conducted without our knowledge,” he said.
The ASA has called for its own commission of inquiry into the Semenya affair, while Parliament’s sports committee has demanded that the athletics body be hauled before the National Assembly.
But the senior official who spoke to the M&G warned that Chuene’s friends “will sit in that commission. Parliament will not help either, because Chuene is politically well connected. What we need is a judicial commission of inquiry, which has to be instituted by [Jacob] Zuma. It should look at the burning issue and athletics in general. ASA leaders should step aside until we get to the bottom of this.”
Semenya sold to the highest bidder
Athletics South Africa (ASA) has fired Caster Semenya’s Finnish agent, Jakku Härkönen, and taken over his public relations role, which includes marketing the athlete to the corporate world, writes Phathisani Moyo.
ASA events manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane confirmed that the association has taken over the management of Caster’s business affairs. The ASA organised the photographs of the World 800m champion dressed as a glamour girl in You magazine for a fee, while preventing her from speaking to other media organisations.
Neither the magazine nor Mlangeni-Tsholetsane would reveal the fee. Semenya is said to have been paid R20 000.
“We fired Härkönen in Berlin and I will be managing Caster until she gets a local agent to look after her affairs,” Mlangeni-Tsholetsane told the M&G this week.
She defended the association’s decision to terminate the contract of the Finnish agent, who also has men’s 800m world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Olympic triple-jump silver medallist Khotso Mokoena on his books.
“We have difficulties in dealing with our athletes who are managed from outside, especially by Härkönen,” she said.
The ASA official emailed the M&G a damning letter penned by South Africa’s former athletics coach, Angus Pohl, about Härkönen’s alleged activities to support the claim that the ASA had acted in Semenya’s interests.
In the letter, Pohl blames his fall-out with Mokoena just before the Beijing Olympics on the Finnish agent and implies that his behaviour is exploitative.
Härkönen refused to comment.
Ironically, ASA stood by Mokoena in his court battle with Pohl, who quit as Mokoena’s coach on the eve of the Beijing Olympics but subsequently demanded between R170 000 and R200 000 after the athlete won silver.
Former ASA coach Wilfred Daniels branded ASA’s stance “two-faced”. “How can they now want to jump into the same bed with a guy [Pohl] who abandoned the team on the eve of the Olympics and successfully sued their athlete for a large amount of his bonus?” he asked.
Daniels also alleged that ASA officials were exploiting Caster for financial gain.
Another ASA official, who refused to be named, said Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, had been left behind when the South African team travelled to Berlin, while Humile Bogatsu, the personal assistant of ASA president Leonard Chuene, went as the assistant team manager.
“Now Seme has been told to stay away from Caster’s business dealings,” said the official.
“Phiwe [Mlangeni-Tsholetsane] and Bogatsu have taken over the Caster Semenya brand. I don’t know how much You magazine paid for that interview but I can confirm that Caster only received R20 000.”
Daniels further claimed that invitations for Semenya to appear on the television shows of talk-show queens Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks fell through because the ASA demanded an appearance fee.
“Caster was willing to appear on the shows, as she wanted to speak for herself. But the whole thing fell apart when Phiwe demanded money,” said Daniels.
Efforts to get comment from Mlangeni-Tsholetsane on Daniels’s allegations proved fruitless. She did not respond to messages left at the ASA.
The ASA source said the association’s officials had been barred from talking to the media on the instructions of a newly hired public relations company, MS&L Worldwide.
The company, the source said, had been brought on board for the purposes “damage control” in the Semenya saga.
MS&L Worldwide issued its first media statement on Thursday on behalf of the ASA, saying that the association would now focus on protecting Semenya’s professional career and allowing her to compete legitimately.
Who is Harold Adams?
If President Jacob Zuma wants to know the truth about the Caster Semenya saga, he need only ask his doctor, writes Yolandi Groenewald.
Athletics South Africa’s chief medical officer and team doctor, Harold Adams, is also Zuma’s personal doctor. Before that he was former president Thabo Mbeki’s doctor, taking the position in 1999.
Adams has been identified as one of the pivotal players in the Semenya mess and possibly the only person who knows the whole truth about when the athlete was tested in South Africa and what happened afterwards.
Adams, from a poor background, is also president of Boland Athletics and works at the military hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town.
A hospital spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian this week that he was accompanying the president on “convoy duty”. He has a kept low profile since the Semenya story broke.
The IAAF is said to hold him in high esteem, and he is a member of the association’s medical committee.
The IAAF said last week that it had been struggling to reach him to find out what the South African test on Semenya had revealed. But media reports this week suggest that the federation has now spoken to him.
Adams is no stranger to controversy. In 2005 he was reportedly investigated by the military police in connection with suspected fraud for medicines that he allegedly signed out of the defence force, among other matters.
No charges were brought against him. This week the military police declined to comment on the investigation.
TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
Great! We should all remember by heart by now all these names involved with the federation… They are famous, indeed! :rolleyes:
Chuene apologises for lying about Semenya tests
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Sep 19 2009 11:54
Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Leonard Chuene admitted on Saturday that he refused to accept advice from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Caster Semenya from the world athletics championships in Berlin last month.
Chuene also admitted that he had lied to the South African public about not having any knowledge of gender tests conducted on Semenya in Pretoria last month.
He added that ASA’s deception on the matter was intended to protect Semenya’s confidentiality.
"I now realise that it was an error of judgement and I would like to apologise unconditionally. As president of ASA I will not, however, apologise for allowing caster Semenya to run or for protecting her privacy.
“We fully agree that we could have handled this matter differently but something like this has never happened in this country before and we at ASA believe we acted in the best interests of the athlete,” he said.
But while Chuene was advised by Adams to withdraw Semenya, he said he refused to do so without any concrete evidence. He said that Adams’ verbal recommendation was not sufficient for him to make a decision on such a sensitive matter.
Chuene also said that Adams, who travelled with Semenya to Berlin, should have advised the athlete to withdraw herself from the championships.
The IAAF is still awaiting the results of gender tests conducted in Berlin but Chuene said he would not accept those results because the world governing body did not follow the correct protocol.
‘We do nothing …’
The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday about an exchange of emails between Adams and Chuene that made it clear that Chuene knew Semenya was gender-tested.
CONTINUES BELOW
The email was sent by Adams to ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo and copied to Chuene on August 5. The World Championships began on August 15.
It reads: “After thinking about the current confidential matter I would suggest that we make the following decisions. 1. We get a gynae opinion and take it to Berlin. 2. We do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin. Please think and get back to me ASAP.”
An emailed response from Malehopo to Adams, sent on the same day, reads: “I will suggest that you go ahead with the necessary tests that the IAAF might need.” - Sapa
"I now realise that it was an error of judgement and I would like to apologise unconditionally. As president of ASA I will not, however, apologise for allowing caster Semenya to run or for protecting her privacy.
He reckons UNCONDITIONAL but there is “however” to it!!
This is simply not enough.
It has been premeditated as we could see from his correspondence with the doctor. It is not sincere and is absolutely insufficient. In fact, an apology no matter how sincere won’t work. Simply because this is all part of the plan, which was if revealed I will handle it i.e. deny and if denial does not work I will apologise knowing well that the only thing that matters is winning that one gold medal while not caring for his own ministerial credibility in the eyes of the world. In fact, it does not really matter what the rest of the world thinks about him. The things that matter to this thug is his job, and deliverance of results that will please his superiors. It is showing how thick skinned this individual is.
His resignation would be partially enough.
What I would like to see happening is his resignation and a guarantee signed by SA president that this guy will never ever work within the government and be in a position to make important decisions.
Really this guy would make a good labourer. Give him a pike and no gloves!
It’s either the doctor’s fault or the athlete’s, of course! Has he resigned yet?
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article121944.ece
Chuene ‘treated Caster as a pawn’
Athletics boss knew of questions about Semenya’s gender
Sep 20, 2009 12:10 AM | By WERNER SWART
Leonard Chuene is a liar who was willing to sacrifice a young woman’s future for a gold medal.
Current Font Size:
CONTRADICTION: Leonard Chuene. Picture: KATHERINE MUICK-MERE
Related
Legal eagles to fight her case
No rush to condemn Chuene, says official
Let Caster speak to expose truth
‘They’ve made Caster a freak’
Chuene sorry for lying
‘It’s men and women of brains and integrity … as they’ve put me there, there is nothing wrong’
The Athletics South Africa (ASA) boss admitted this yesterday at a heated press conference in Pretoria, conceding that he was fully aware there were questions about 800m world champion Caster Semenya’s gender.
He also admitted that he knew gender tests were performed on her on August 7 in Pretoria - a week before Semenya ran at the Berlin championships - and that he was advised by team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw her from competing.
He claimed he was presented with two options:
Let Semenya fake an injury and withdraw from the race; or
Let Semenya run and “discuss” the matter after the race.
But until yesterday Chuene had deceived the nation by denying any knowledge of the tests or concerns over Semenya’s gender.
Despite this, Chuene has refused to resign. Asked why he should hold onto his position, he said: “I believe very strong (sic) a democratic structure does not need pressure from anybody. It’s men and women of brains and integrity, if they come to that level, as they’ve put me there, there is nothing wrong.”
That response characterised his bizarre performance at yesterday’s press conference.
At one point, as Chuene repeatedly deviated from a written statement, one of his public relations staffers slipped a written note to him asking him to “stick to the script”. But this failed to stop his incoherent rant.
Chuene admitted what has been known for some time - that he and ASA management knew there were questions about Semenya’s gender and that she was sent to the Medforum Medi-Clinic for tests before she left for Germany.
But he claimed he did this to protect Semenya’s privacy - a decision that had the opposite effect.
On Adams advising him to withdraw Semenya from competing on August 14, Chuene said the test results were not available at the time.
“It was on the basis of rumours … I was with Dr Adams and on the same basis of rumour I refused,” he said.
But Chuene also admitted he had initially agreed to withdraw Semenya, but then later changed his mind. “I did not see the results, but I heard (what the results were),” he said, but did not elaborate on what he was told.
Gideon Sam, the president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), said yesterday that it would investigate the conflicting reports.
Chuene and ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo met recently with Sam and Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy and lied to them.
“Caster Semenya’s wellbeing is the priority, but we have to ensure the integrity of those who administer member federations within Sascoc has not been undermined; alternatively, that the sport has not been done a disservice through the actions of its leadership,” Sam said.
He added that Sascoc’s position would be determined by the results of the investigation, and the organisation would be guided by their legal advisers.
An athlete told the Sunday Times that “questions were being asked about the gender issue in January already”.
“She was sacrificed for a medal, simple as that,” the athlete said.
E-mails in the possession of the Sunday Times show that Chuene was copied on correspondence between team doctor Adams and ASA general manager Malehopo.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) picked up on the speculation around Semenya on a South African blog on August 3, which stated that “Caster Semenya is an interesting revelation. Interesting because the 18-year-old was born as a hermaphrodite and, through a series of tests, has been classified as female.”
This was copied and sent from IAAF spokesman Nick Davies under the subject line “Just to be aware of!” to the top hierarchy in the IAAF, who in turn sent an e-mail to Adams asking that the matter investigated.