14 DAY TRIAL // South African Caster Semenya, the new 800m world champion, is a woman, her family tells the media, following the gender controversy that broke shortly after she pulled the best time recorded in the world this year. In fact, Semenya performed so well for her first international sports competition that the International Association of Athletics Federations even asked her to take a gender test, as the BBC can confirm.
Moments after Semenya won, rumors emerged that she was actually a boy who had hidden his identity to be able to take part in a women’s competition or that, at the very best, she had a genetic condition, which meant she had both male and female chromosomes and that she did not reveal that to anyone. In order to determine the exact situation, the Association asked Semenya to take a gender test that would include both a physical exam and more tests. According to her family, the “gender controversy” started out of jealousy, as they can vouch that the 18-year-old champion is a girl.
“I know she’s a woman – I raised her myself. If you go at my home village and ask any of my neighbors, they would tell you that Mokgadi [Caster Semenya] is a girl. They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl. I am not concerned about such things.” Semenya’s grandmother tells the media, as cited by the BBC.
The champion’s mother also agrees that the controversy was started out of jealousy, while her grandmother insists that the girl has already been through enough hurt growing up to have to be put through the same experience all over again. According to the 80-year-old Maphuthi Sekgala, as a child, Semenya was often teased by other kids for her boyish looks, but she always put the hurt she felt aside and concentrated only on what she wanted to do. She was also the only girl on the football team in Fairlie, a village in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province, the BBC says.
Nick Davies, spokesman for the IAAF, explains in a press release that the Association is looking into the claims. “Our main priority is to see the athlete is treated with the respect and sensitivity she deserves, and to uphold the standards of the sport.” Davies explains. At the same time, South Africa’s athletics federation has issued a statement saying it was “completely sure” Semenya was a woman.