You can not compare the two. When you see CS you see a dude.
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.
No kidding…
Is a medal worth a young woman’s sanity
By Mike Hurst
From: The Daily Telegraph
September 22, 2009 12:00AM
CASTER Semenya has started a bizarre daily ritual in which she relives the best and worst moment of her athletics career.
The sexually ambiguous South African teenager plays a recording of her run to victory in the women’s 800m at the world championships in Berlin, watches as she receives the gold medal.
Then she repeats the commentator’s words: “But is she a man or is she a woman? But is she a man or is she a woman?”
The confronting routine, reported by South Africa’s Weekend Argus, is believed to be part of therapy to help the 18-year-old cope with the fallout from her win.
So it has come to this.
A young person’s life is in disarray at best, danger at worst because the adults - most of them self-appointed - who presumed to guide her thought more of the glory which would be reflected on them than they did of the giant burden Semenya would be left to carry.
Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene and his equally ruthless retinue had devised a plan with their coaching consultant Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German doping expert and former Stasi spy, that their intersex superstar would win a gold medal in Berlin and the burden of proof that she was anything other than a “normal” female would be on the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Chuene denied Semenya was intersexual, denied gender verification tests had been conducted on her, denied (still to this day) the IAAF any access to Semenya and accused the IAAF of being “racist” and “sexist” towards her by questioning her gender.
The Daily Telegraph exposed his fraud when we revealed in a world exclusive on September 11 that Semenya was a hermaphrodite, or intersexual, with no womb or ovaries but internal testes which generated three times the testosterone of a “normal” female and are a major cancer risk.
Chuene’s bluff had been not only called, but broken down as a few honest men, such as former South African coach Wilfred Daniels, found the courage and further evidence to accuse the ASA chief of lying.
It was a charge Chuene confessed to at the weekend, although he still has yet to tell the whole truth.
Daniels told The Telegraph last night he did not know whether Semenya even now has been informed of the findings and possible health implications of the sex tests conducted on her on August 7 in Pretoria.
“Of course it’s important she knows,” Daniels said.
“That’s why it’s sad the IAAF (which has its own results of tests conducted in Berlin) can’t contact her. In the meanwhile there might be a medical condition she needs to know about.”
The IAAF results are being reviewed by a panel of experts and the executive council will make a decision about Semenya’s future in the sport at their next meeting on November 20-21.
But a sombre Daniels, the most knowledgeable person on athletics at ASA until he resigned early this month, believes she has no future in the sport.
“For all intents and purposes, no matter what the IAAF says on November 21, I don’t believe she can step on the track again as a woman,” he said yesterday.
“The other competitors in the race will withdraw.”
Daniels added: "The most amazing thing was that nobody at Athletics South Africa took the trouble to speak to Caster about this, to talk her through all the options and the consequences of competing and let her decide.
“But they needed the medal at all costs.”
INTERESTING ARTICLE GIVEN THOSE QUOTED HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THE IAAF
Dr.: S. African Runner Has Birth Defect
Updated: Sunday, 13 Sep 2009, 4:48 PM CDT
Published : Sunday, 13 Sep 2009, 4:48 PM CDT
* By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - It’s the birth defect people don’t talk about. A baby is born not completely male or female. The old term was hermaphrodite, then intersex . Now it’s called “disorders of sexual development.” Sometimes the person with the problem doesn’t even know it and finds out in an all too public way.
That’s been the painful plight of a few female athletes through history. And apparently that’s the situation for South African track star Caster Semenya.
Two Australian newspapers reported Friday that gender tests show the world champion athlete has no ovaries or uterus and internal testes that produce large amounts of testosterone. The international sports federation that ordered the tests wouldn’t confirm the reports.
Experts say Semenya should be allowed to race as a woman and they cringe at how her case is exploding publicly in the news media. They worry about psychological scars . Two years ago, a star female track athlete who tested male attempted suicide.
[b]Unless she took some illicit substance, Semenya is a female with a birth defect, simple as that, said Dr. Myron Genel, a professor emeritus of pediatrics at Yale University. He was part of a special panel of experts convened by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1990 that helped end much, but not all, genetic gender testing.
“It’s no different in a sense than a youngster who is born with a hole in the heart,” Genel said. “These are in fact birth defects in an area that a lot of people are uncomfortable with.”[/b]
Semenya is hardly alone. Estimates vary, but about 1 percent of people are born with abnormal sex organs, experts say. These people may have the physical characteristics of both genders or a chromosomal disorder or simply ambiguous features.
Sometimes a sexual development problem is all too obvious when a baby is born. Other times, the disorder in girls may not be noticed until puberty, when she doesn’t start her period. And still other times, especially with the androgen insensitivity syndrome experts think Semenya might have, it remains hidden until she tries to have a baby – or in the case of an athlete, until she’s given a genetic test.
Genetic testing of women over five Olympics found genetic gender issues in 27 out of 11,373 women tested, according to a 2000 Journal of the American Medical Association article. However, none were men deliberately posing as women, as competitors fear.
[b]Dr. Louis Elsas, chairman of biochemistry at the University of Miami and a member of the IAAF panel with Genel, said he had hoped the genetic gender testing issue was over after the 1996 Olympics, when most major sports abandoned regular testing. He recalled having to talk to a female athlete and reveal that she had XY chromosomes and that she’d be infertile. It’s something that shouldn’t splash onto television, newspapers and the Internet, he said.
“It’s a severe emotional trauma,” Elsas said.
The concern that women with XY chromosomes have a competitive advantage “is malarkey. We don’t segregate athletes by height,” said Genel, speaking from an international endocrinology conference in New York that has sessions on intersex issues.
Dr. Joe Leigh Simpson, past president of the American College of Medical Genetics and a member of the IAAF panel, agreed: “Any elite athlete … has a competitive advantage, or otherwise they wouldn’t be an elite athlete.”
Simpson, associate dean at Florida International University, said the issue should be simply whether men are masquerading as women. Semenya is clearly a woman, he said.[/b]
Nearly all the disorders are caused by genetic mutations, Simpson said. And they usually happen in the first eight weeks of pregnancy, he said.
There are many types of sexual development disorders, all of them rare, but they add up, the experts said. Depending on the particular disorder and individual condition, treatment could involve surgery or hormone therapy or both. The issue is often not just what sex to assign the child, but when to assign it. It used to be that doctors pushed surgery on babies; now many times they wait. Sometimes they wait until the patient is old enough to help make a decision.
David Sandberg, a pediatric psychologist at Michigan, said he advises families to go slowly when deciding whether to raise their child as a boy or girl or whether to have surgery. Treatment varies depending on the disorder, but has become more conservative over the years, he said.
But that’s when the problem is noticeable. When it comes to some athletes like Semenya, it’s not even known until tests reveal it.
Maria Martinez-Patino knows the issue firsthand. A world-class athlete, she was raised and looked like a normal female and even received the needed “certificate of feminity” to participate in the 1983 World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
In 1985 at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan, her test came back with an XY and she was not allowed to compete. Martinez-Patino
had androgen insensitivity, meaning she didn’t respond to testosterone. That meant she also didn’t have a competitive advantage from having an XY chromosome.
“I sat in the stands that day watching my teammates, wondering how my body differed from theirs,” she wrote in the medical journal The Lancet in 2005. “I spent the rest of that week in my room, feeling a sadness that I could not share.”
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/health/dpg_Dr_S_African_Runner_Has_Birth_Defect_mb_09132009_3483934
What they appear to be suggesting, John, is that athletes such as Semenya should be racing in women’s competitions since she is “clearly a woman”.
If that is so, then we need henceforth never again bother with any issues of eligibility.
That then will be the end of competitions exclusively for women.
There will only be “open” competition.
Which men will of course entirely dominate.
It really is a simple solution which is the logical extension of the arguments presented in the article posted above.
yes and given their history with IAAF it will be interesting to see what is announced in November.
If she is XY she is genetically a male with a birth defect (e.g. androgen insensitivity) that prevented her from fully developing male reproductive organs.
Exactly right and it will remain so till some IAAF darling like Sanya Richards gets her ass kicked by a teenaged equivalent who trains for 9 months and runs 46.0. As long as one African disadavantages other Africans, it’s only about poor Semenya.
ANC Youth League renews Nedbank threat
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 03 2009 11:36
Nedbank must retain its sponsorship of Athletics SA or face the wrath of patriotic South Africans, the ANC Youth League said on Saturday.
“ANCYL calls on Nedbank to retain its sponsorship of Athletics South Africa (ASA) or face the might of patriotic South Africans,” league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said in a statement.
"The ANCYL will mobilise all patriotic South Africans, corporations, institutions and government departments that bank with Nedbank to withdraw their accounts from the bank and switch to other banks if the sponsorship is not retained.
“We place it on record that this is not a threat, but a promise,” said Shivambu.
Shivambu said the proposed action was intended to ensure banks and corporations understood their “responsibility” to invest in the development of athletics in the country.
“The ANCYL is however willing to engage with the leadership of Nedbank to establish a common understanding on how funding of sports, particularly athletics development in South Africa should not be undermined because of slight mishaps.”
He suggested that Nedbank could have withdrawn their sponsorship of ASA “premised on what they call negative publicity of ASA”.
It was “apparent” that Nedbank’s withdrawal of sponsorship to the ASA was aimed at “undermining” the sports organisation and “roll[ing] back” the development of athletics in the country, said Shivambu.
His comments reiterated those of ANCYL leader Julius Malema, who threatened to “mobilise society” against Nedbank on Thursday.
“Let them withdraw. We’ll engage them and we’ll expose them for who they are. We’ll tell them the truth of why they are withdrawing, and we’ll mobilise the South African society to know what Nedbank is,” Malema told reporters in Johannesburg.
"That’s what defines our struggle today – of people who are refusing to accept the transformation, to accept African leadership, to accept new development.
Malema criticised Deputy Sport Minister Gert Oosthuizen for calling for ASA head Leonard Chuene’s dismissal. Chuene admitted to lying to the South African public about not having any knowledge of gender tests conducted on 800m world champion Caster Semenya in Pretoria last month.
Nedbank pulled its sponsorship of the annual Matha Series races, the backbone of road running in the country.
“Nedbank’s dissatisfaction with the quality of delivery by ASA of some events in the City Marathon and Matha Series over the past years is well known and the negotiations to end the contract had commenced well before the start of the current controversy surrounding ASA,” the bank said in a statement. - Sapa
Mokganyetsi denies ASA disruption
October 03 2009 at 04:20PM
Athletics South Africa (ASA) board member Hendrick Mokganyetsi denied on Saturday that the federation had purposely disrupted an athletes’ meeting in Pretoria after he led a walkout.
Former sprinter Geraldine Pillay, who organised the meeting to discuss the poor state of the sport in the country, said she suspected ASA of purposely causing disruption after a group of “drunk” individuals forced them to call off the meeting.
“We could not resolve anything because the meeting was disrupted by a group of individuals who arrived drunk,” said Pillay, a double Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
"But we had enough response from the athletes to know that we should take this forward. We will definitely do this again.
‘I have been told that ASA mobilised these people to disrupt the meeting’
"Unfortunately certain individuals don’t seem to care enough about the sport and misinterpreted what the meeting was about.
“I have been told that ASA mobilised these people to disrupt the meeting.”
But Mokganyetsi said he had led the walkout because Pillay had not stuck to the agenda. He also denied that anyone in attendance had been drinking alcohol.
“Nobody caused a disruption,” said Mokganyetsi, joint South African record holder in the men’s 400 metres.
"There were questions posed and there were no answers. Nobody was drunk. Can she (Pillay) prove that?
‘Nobody was drunk’
"I’m very disappointed about the way this was handled. We expected them to deal with the issues we were ivited there to discuss.
"Yesterday on the radio, and on TV, she invited athletes to attend the meeting to discuss Leonard Chuene and the Caster Semenya situation, but none of that was on the agenda.
“All they discussed was the ANC constitution and the ASA consititution. We spent two hours there and there seemed to be no purpose, so we left.”
But Pillay said the meeting had not been held to discuss ASA president Chuene or his handling of the gender controversy surrounding world 800m champion Semenya.
“This meeting was not about whether Leonard should stay or go, and it wasn’t about Caster,” Pillay said.
"This was supposed to be an open platform for athletes to voice their concerns about what is happening in the sport.
"Nedbank said it withdrew its sponsorship of road running this week because of mismanagement at events organised by ASA, and we can’t afford that.
“We are going to appoint an athletes’ commission in the interim to give us a voice, but we will definitely hold this meeting again soon.”
Mokganyetsi, however, said he would not attend another meeting organised by Pillay.
The former sprinter, who is the head of the ASA athletes’ commission -w hich also consists of Arnaud Malherbe, Ruben Ramolefi, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Tebogo Masehla - said the commission would meet soon to discuss Chuene’s handling of the Semenya debacle. - Sapa
[b]I received a phone text from someone (in attendance) during this meeting in Pretoria. According to this athlete, Mokganyetsi’s “mob” crashed the meeting, initially accusing those present of being “racists but then when they realised that almost everyone in the room was black, they switched their attack to say the meeting was unconstitutional” after which the “constitution was read out and that point was over ruled”.
“Then after all athletes raised their concerns, there came a lot of non athletes into the meeting, then they disrupted just when we wanted to come to conclusions. They stood up shouting, screaming and dancing … until everyone left. I feel so sad and tired now. What are we supposed to do. I hope this doesn’t mean the end of all our careers.”[/b]