Friday, September 11, 2009

Win at all costs?

Evidently, a South African sports minister is threatening "world war" if runner Caster Semenya is banned from competing as a woman, even though an IAAF gender test has allegedly revealed that she has no womb, no ovaries, and two (internal) testicles. Apparently South African sports authorities never thought anything was amiss when a young lady built like a linebacker and with the voice of Richard Sterban started running times close to those of Jarmila Kratochilova, all the while being coached by a former East German track coach and showing sky-high testosterone readings on doping tests. Nobody ever bothered to ask questions about why she'd never had "that time of the month," why people who had known her for years didn't know her sex, and why her face (and waist) is clearly that of a man.

Now it is certain that this person's life is being trashed, but let's place blame where it belongs; on the sports authorities who ignored clear signs that something was very wrong because "she" could run a blazing 800 meters.

9 comments:

Gino said...

i dont care what they say she is now.
she's lived her life as a woman, and my heart goes out to her as she attempts normalcy.

pentamom said...

I hope she achieves as much normalcy as possible, too, but world-class athletic competition and "normalcy" aren't exactly the same thing. World class athletic competition is in fact outside the norm, and if she has a medical condition that prevents her from competing fairly, she's no more entitled to compete unfairly in the name of "normalcy" than I am entitled to have the hurdles lowered and the course shortened to accommodate my own physical limitations for the task.

I wish her well in every area of life, but if she is physically not truly female, then she is not entitled to compete as such. Athletic competition is nothing if not physically-based.

Bike Bubba said...

Apart from the horrifically difficult question of how to help Caster Semenya (we'll start by "no running as a girl that you aren't"), I hope that the IAAF and IOC get religion on this and make sure that a woman doesn't compete without a gender test.

pentamom said...

That would be "sex test." Gender is strictly a linguistic/grammatical term.

Of course, "gender" is used more loosely nowadays to describe social concepts, but it's absolutely not applicable to determining the physical sex of a human being.

Thus ends the lesson/lecture. ;-)

Mark said...

First: Does she throw like a girl? ;^)

Second: Does this mean "she" is going to be eligible for the Special Olympics? Gonna tear 'em up...

Third: I'd think an East German coach might just naturally fit in South Africa considering their political climate.

Fourth: Lacking a penis and having something like a vagina would be sufficient signs of femaleness for almost everyone in the world. We didn't check our girls for ovaries when they were born. And VERY active women (track stars) without fat often don't menstruate.

Bike Bubba said...

Mark: dunno, probably not, maybe, and yes. Regarding #4: most young ladies in track don't train hard enough to cause amenhorrea (cessation of menses) until someone figures out they're world class.

Combine that with all the other factors, and one can see how cruel the SA sports authorities have been to Caster Semenya. Hopefully he/she, a sibling of ours in Christ apparently, gets the help she needs.

pentamom said...

Yeah, but regarding that, no one should necessarily "notice" whether a woman menstruates other than her husband and her gynecologist, if she knows how to manage things well.

The hard thing here was that she is genetically and physically neither absolutely male nor female. It seems to me that given the reason WHY men's and women's track sports are segregated (that maleness ordinarily confers an inherent advantage) then the degree to which she tilts male does in fact disqualify her. But I could imagine a situation where a woman with the same issues, but a different manifestation, might be allowed to pass. I don't think this is quite as simple as some would make it, but I think they made the correct decision here.

Mark: I assume you're joking, but just in case, Special Olympics for people with mental disabilities.

Mark said...

I must have been thinking of the Paralympics.

Bike Bubba said...

Pentamom, probably the best person to speak to this would be her mom or sisters....you're right that MEN might not know, but since mom & sisters get to help a girl get used to that aspect of womanhood....

....that said, the key thing for me is that there are a BUNCH of things saying something's very different, and nobody ever seemed to ask the question.