BraceLand

While my African and Caribbean friends were gloating about Usain Bolt’s win in the 100 meters at the World Championships for Track & Field, another controversy was building off the track.  An 18-year old South African, Caster Semenya, won the women’s 800 meters, blowing away the field.  The problem, for many people, is that they don’t think she’s a woman.  By looking at her, and taking her extraordinary speed into account, I can’t say I blame the skeptics:

Caster Semenya

So now they’re testing her gender.  For anyone who’s read Middlesex, this raises some interesting questions.  How exactly do you test someone’s gender?  If you find that someone has some male genetic components, does that mean they’re a man?  And then what does THAT mean?  In everyday life, ironically, these issues might not be such a big deal.  When it comes to sports, especially sports in which men and women compete in the same, yet segregated, events, it’s a little more complicated.

This article from the NYT does a good job of outlining why this testing is so complex.  I’m going out on a limb here and guessing that she has both male and female genetic characteristics.  What does this mean for her future competition?  Would she be banned from both men’s and women’s events?  How isn’t that discriminatory?  And furthermore, aren’t all world-class athletes genetically gifted or extraordinary in some way?  If someone has a gene that gives them better lung capacity, shouldn’t they be banned for having an unfair advantage?

It’s been determined that Semenya wasn’t doping.  She was raised as a  girl.  It seems profoundly unfair to me to treat her as if she cheated.  On the other hand, if she’s determined to be more male than female (again, lord knows how they’re going to figure that out, or what standard they’re going to use), it seems profoundly unfair to the other women who are running to let her compete.  The results will take weeks to come in.  I’ll be interested to see how the IAAF handles this one.