Sydney: 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 reporters 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.
A local sports scientist, Ross Tucker, said the latest saga was “very sad” because both the IAAF and ASA had not come out openly to quell all the rumour mongering.
“The IAAF has tried to take the prudent approach but waiting to release the test report. But the longer they wait the more chances of more leaks in the next few days and I think it will get even more worse for Caster Semenya in the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“I think for Caster if the reports are accurate she should have an operation as soon as possible to remove the internal testicles or it will become malignant and cause cancer. Once she does the operation, she can continue with her athletics career without any problem. At the moment it’s very unsavoury for her,” said Tucker.
The chairperson of Sports Portfolio Committee in the Parliament, Butana Khompela, said they would not abandon Semenya “whether she’s a man or woman”.
“Why should we comment on something when we don’t have the test reports in our hand,” he said.
“The manner in which this report is being leaked is not good for Semenya. We are not going to allow this to destroy our Semenya. She will have our full support.
“We are not going to abandon Caster Semenya.”
Only two weeks ago when Caster returned from the World Championships in Berlin, she was given a rousing welcome by the government, sporting officials and the public at large.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, September 11, 2009, 17:57