You will know the story of the 18-year-old Semenya by now. How she emerged from nowhere to run world-leading times and dominate the women's 800 metres at last month's World Athletics Championships in Berlin. How the IAAF ham-fistedly asked her to submit to the humiliation of gender verification testing on the afternoon of her final. How Athletics South Africa (ASA) subsequently accused the world's media of racism for their intense speculation about the case.
Late last week, the extent to which ASA president Leonard Chuene and other officials had systematically lied to both the IAAF and the media began to unfold. Having denied the existence of procedures carried out on Semenya prior to Berlin, it now transpires that tests were carried out in Pretoria on August 7th - 12 days before her gold medal-winning run - at the order of the ASA. Worse still, they were conducted without the athlete's knowledge (she was told she was attending a routine drugs check).
The procedure apparently revealed that Semenya has internal testes, of which she herself would have had no knowledge. The assumption is that these produce abnormally high levels of testosterone, contributing towards a masculine physical appearance which offers a significant competitive advantage.
Chuene has since claimed that his motivation for covering up the test and its results was to "protect a child", and not a desire to pursue a gold medal to highlight ASA's achievements on a global stage. (Semenya's was one of only two South African golds in Berlin.) He has also alleged that IAAF officials suggested to him that she should feign injury in the final and pull out to avoid controversy.
Such statements are extraordinary and lack any semblance of credibility. Not even South Africans are convinced by him, least of all his own Sports Ministry, who have been quick to denounce his "lies" and his decision to allow Semenya to run in Berlin.
"Quite clearly, Chuene was putting his quest for medals above everything else. He must resign, he must go."
Helen Zille, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance
Regardless of Chuene's sensational allegations, the IAAF are not entirely blameless in this affair. For one thing, the decision to make public their request to test Semenya on the day of the final of her event smacked as much of political heavy-handedness as it did massive insensitivity. And, perhaps more importantly in the long term, it has raised the issue of the significant grey area that exists between between an athlete being classified as indisputably male or female. For while Semenya is an unusual case of an athlete who, by virtue of possessing both male and female genitalia, appears to be a person with obvious intersex characteristics, she is by no means unique. Intersex conditions of varying degrees - often subtle - appear in as many as one in a thousand people, and could confer significant physiological advantages.
But how do you draw the line between an athlete who is eligible to compete as a female, and one who is not? It is not simply a case of determining whether an individual has two X chromosomes (nominally indicating female) or one each of X and Y (male). The IAAF has its own regulations and guidelines, but it is neither a precise science nor a straightforward decision. There is no easy formula for navigating the shades of grey in between the two genders, and any dividing line drawn by the IAAF (or indeed any other sporting body) is an arbitrary one.
Sadly, once you strip away the science and the politics, it is Caster Semenya herself who is very much the victim in this case. Although the IAAF has promised that she will retain her gold medal from Berlin, it seems likely that she will meet the IAAF's eligibility requirements for competing in women's events. Falling within the shades of grey, her athletics career may well be over almost before it has begun, and she will suffer the indignity of being looked upon by many as neither man nor woman but 'freak'.
That is the real tragedy here. Never mind her career, Caster Semenya's life may well have been ruined in the pursuit of shiny gold. Was the glory really worth it for Leonard Chuene and the ASA?
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