Despite all that going on in the world today I have been keeping an eye on the athletics in Germany.
The success we have had in Philips Idowu, Jenny Meadows, Jessica Ennis and are good news.
And as for watching Usain Bolt..........that guy is not real.
He has had more drugs tests in the last 2 years than any other athlete in sporting history.
However his tests are yes as the name says for drugs, to prove he is not cheating.
But sadly a young requires a not so normal type test, and this ladies name is being dragged across the world media and it is a disgrace.Last night Caster Semenya, an 18-year-old South African, last won gold in the 800 metres but she may be forced to return the medal if she fails a gender-verification test.
Yep a gender test.Semenya, unknown on the world stage until this week, is now a world champion but her sexuality has been officially questioned and she has been asked to undergo medical examination to prove that she is female.
Her victory last night was notably dominant, particularly for a newcomer, and comments afterwards from her beaten rivals emphasised the unpleasant situation in which she now finds herself.
Mariya Savinova, the Russian who was fifth, raised doubts over the winner’s gender and Elisa Piccione, the Italian who finished sixth, was more damning. “For me, she is not a woman,” Piccione said. No one should be accusing Semenya of cheating, though. Instead, her strength and appearance have raised fears that she may have been born with a rare abnormality, where she has grown up with the genitalia of a woman but the chromosomes of a male.
The storm growing around her is such that last night’s race was a comparative moment’s calm. After she had beaten Kenya’s Janeth Jepkosgei and Britain’s Jenny Meadows into second and third respectively, she did half a lap of honour before being whisked out of the stadium, avoiding the media mixed zone and the winner’s press conference.
Now the rumours about this ladies condition started well before the Berlin games. Her arrival was preceded by speculation in athletics chat rooms about her sexuality. And when she arrived, it only got worse. Down at the warm-up track, she has had rivals pointing, starring and gossiping.
What the IAAF had hoped was that the South Africans would withdraw Semenya from Berlin, to protect her. “We would not have entered her in the female event if we had any doubt,” said a team statement.
So the South African are confident as to her gender.Nick Davies, the IAAF spokesman, explained yesterday that “the extremely difficult, complex” gender-verification process involved “an endocrinologist, a gynaecologist, an internal medicine expert, an expert on gender and a psychologist” and would take a matter of weeks.
There are between 20 and 30 different types of “intersex” conditions, each of them affecting the body in different ways, and it is for the medics to decide whether, if Semenya is found to have one of them, the resulting hormonal balance gives her an unfair advantage.
“It will have to be carefully considered,” Davies said. “It is not straightforward.” This is not the first time the IAAF has asked for gender verification though, generally, the athletes have managed to retain their privacy. It remains to be seen whether Semenya appears for today’s medal ceremony. The last athlete to fail a gender test was Santhi Soundarajan, the Indian 800 metres runner, who was stripped of the silver medal she won at the 2006 Asian Games. A year later, she failed in an apparent suicide attempt.
So the IAAF, her colleagues on the track have now publically come out and detailed the issue, and we now from the MSM have a complete insight into this ladies issue and the examination, of what by who that has to be carried out to prove her gender.
Now if this was a drug cheat it would be under wraps until 2 samples had been found positive. But we will take a highly difficult and personal medical issue like this. Blow it across virtually every paper, TV sports channel in the wrold and expect an 18 year old to just walk away as if nothing had happened.
But the thing is they knew there was an issue in the background. So why not deal with it quietly, privately behind closed dorrs before the games.? Why drag her name, her family, her reputation through the world press and the mud.
The handling of this is an absolute disgrace. I hope she is proven to be 100% lady in all aspects and goes on like Usain Bolt to dominate her sport and put all her doubting competition into second place.
Go on girl.
