Field

No, Not For The Win: Literally, Fuck The What?!?

This has nothing to do with fantasy sports, unless you’ve got a fantasy track and field league that you don’t tell anyone about.  This is just one of those things that floored me.

Is the athlete to the right, male or female? That is the question.

South Africa’s Caster Semenya destroyed the competition in Berlin recently. Maybe you had a chance to catch it if you tuned in to watch Usain Bolt qualify for the 200M while speed-walking.

Semenya won the 800m by about 2.5 seconds, but that’s not the news.

From the AP via the National Post:

Her dominating run came on the same day track and field’s ruling body said she was undergoing a gender test because of concerns she does not meet requirements to compete as a woman.

Holy shit.

South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane would not confirm or deny that Semenya was having such a test.

”We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way,” Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said. ”Our conscience is clear in terms of Caster. We have no reservations at all about that.”

Holy Shit.

I’m not even sure how to approach this.  If Semenya is a woman (xx) then this is equally as screwed up.  I’m sure Semenya will continue to dominate, but she’s basically been told that she’s the fugliest woman ever.

If Semenya has or had a penis, or the requisite genetic structure, then this is just screwed up.  I would be interested to know how the governing body deals with genetic pairings other than XX and XY…

Any information would be appreciated.