HuwB
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Caster Semenya: Athletic Raising the Doping Bar?Well, you have to wonder, don't you? Jamaican sprinters continue to make mincemeat of both the records and opposition, and we know there is plenty of dirt amongst the "also rans".
Now, we have this:-
At least cycling shouldn't suffer from competitors of "questionable" gender.
The statistics tell the tale:
Controversy has dogged the 18- year-old since she posted a world leading personal best time of 1 minute 56.72 seconds – an eight second improvement on her time last year – to win gold at the African Junior Championships in Mauritius last month.
– Semenya's notably developed frame was further exaggerated. As the athletes took off, Semenya lead from the start, determined to ignore the media speculation and focus on her race. The gold medal winner never looked threatened and finished well ahead of the pack with a new personal best of 1:55.45.
So, that's now, a 9 second improvement. Half a second faster than Kelly Holmes ever ran.
I wonder what the IOC testing will turn up?
I also wonder what Steve Cram's take is, on this?
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Bartali
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Michael Johnsons reaction was interesting last night. Critical of the timing and lack of privacy ... but clearly thought something was amiss.
Suggestion is its genetic rather than 'cheating' which would be unfortunate for her.
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The Lemondheads
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Doping is the obvious first thought here, but it's probably not the correct answer. This is an intersèx male born with female genitalia and apparently raised with the female cultural gender. A fit and trained athletic bloke will beat an elite female field and won't need dope to do it.
The question here is whether there has been purely a string of incompetence in sending her to the Worlds rather than for psychiatry; or if there is more of a conspiracy and someone thought that they'd get away with it.
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Bartali
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I guess untill very recently she didn't have the muscle mass nor the performance we would expect from a bloke. Conspiracy or incompetence ... or phenomenon like Bolt - I feel a little sorry for her.
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thunderthighs
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clean athlete... never..nobody at that level....
ciao
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redster73
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Re: Caster Semenya: Athletic Raising the Doping Bar? | HuwB wrote: | Well, you have to wonder, don't you? Jamaican sprinters continue to make mincemeat of both the records and opposition, and we know there is plenty of dirt amongst the "also rans".
Now, we have this:-
At least cycling shouldn't suffer from competitors of "questionable" gender.
The statistics tell the tale:
Controversy has dogged the 18- year-old since she posted a world leading personal best time of 1 minute 56.72 seconds – an eight second improvement on her time last year – to win gold at the African Junior Championships in Mauritius last month.
– Semenya's notably developed frame was further exaggerated. As the athletes took off, Semenya lead from the start, determined to ignore the media speculation and focus on her race. The gold medal winner never looked threatened and finished well ahead of the pack with a new personal best of 1:55.45.
So, that's now, a 9 second improvement. Half a second faster than Kelly Holmes ever ran.
I wonder what the IOC testing will turn up?
I also wonder what Steve Cram's take is, on this? |
Still someway off the world record though...heard the interview with her and 'husky' would be a polite way of describing her voice...
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Enchantress
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| Bartali wrote: | | I guess untill very recently she didn't have the muscle mass nor the performance we would expect from a bloke. Conspiracy or incompetence ... or phenomenon like Bolt - I feel a little sorry for her. |
I too feel empathy for her as well on a variety of levels.
I think there is a clear difference between physical, genital sex and gender and this is quite concisely understood in the fields of medicine and psychology. Someone having male body parts does not make them a 'bloke'.
Nonetheless, in 2009, I cannot believe anyone of male sex would adopt a female gender in the field of serious, international sport. With all the tests and scrutiny and media attention, I think it is implausible.
In short, I don't think we could have a case of Hermann Ratjen for those of you familiar with the history.
Back to the runner though, I feel bad for her.
For one she is very, very young and I wonder the wisdom of the pressure and expectations placed on any person who is a mere 18 years old - especially one in sport.
Another thing is that if she has a condition such as androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), or other form of intersexuality or unusual chromosome arrangement - then it is unequivocally not her doing or choice. Nobody picks to have these conditions but they are hardly unheard of.
For instance 1 in about 20,000 is born with AIS.
The olympic committee has already ruled that trans athletes can compete in sport with certain guidelines and I think that is fair as well.
So the purpose of these tests, seems to me to reek of a smear effort by some individuals in the world of track sport.
The possibility of doping is a whole other story of course and perhaps that's what's really happening here. Because it is just as unlikely for a female athlete as a male one, to post such a big improvement in there performance at that distance in just one year.
Which to me, goes back again to perhaps some of her rivals wanting to discredit her.
We all know that the drug tests are far behind the best doping methods.
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mazda
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| The Lemondheads wrote: | | Doping is the obvious first thought here, but it's probably not the correct answer. This is an intersèx male born with female genitalia and apparently raised with the female cultural gender. A fit and trained athletic bloke will beat an elite female field and won't need dope to do it. |
So "she" has XY chromosomes ?
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Beasley
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There was an female Indian middle distance runner who was diagnosed with AIS after the Asian Games a few years ago.
When asked if she'd ever had a inkling she said no; she never had a menstrual cycle, but she was born in extreme poverty so never had the money to investigate it further. It's just isn't something you worry about in rural India.
They used to perform gender verification as standard up to the Atlanta Games.
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