Runner's family angered by hermaphrodite report

The family of women's 800 metres world champion Caster Semenya's reacted with anger at reports saying medical tests have revealed the athlete is neither a woman nor a man, but a hermaphrodite.

"Why must jealousy drive people to say such bad things? Why are you bringing all this?" asked Semenya's mother Dorcus Semenya before hanging up the telephone, reported Britain's The Times newspaper Friday.

Semenya's grandmother, Maphuthi Sekgale said she was shocked and angry when The Times told her about the report.

"I've raised her as young girl and I have not doubt that she is a girl. As the family, we don't care who is saying what and we also don't care, even if she won't be running internationally, but we will always support her athletic talent," she said of the 18-year-old.

The reactions come a day after the Daily Telegraph in Sydney reported that gender tests on Semenya, who has prominent muscles, a low voice and some facial hair, have found she is a hermaphrodite.

The International Association of Athletics Federations, world athletics' governing body, said Friday it has received the results of the tests, but is still reviewing them and has not made them public.

"We can officially confirm that gender verification test results will be examined by a group of medical experts. No decision on the case will be communicated until the IAAF has had the opportunity to complete this examination," the federation said.

"We do not expect to make a final decision on this case before the next meeting of the IAAF Council which takes place in Monaco on November 20-21."

Yet numerous media outlets are reporting that tests showed Semenya had no womb or ovaries but did have a set of internal testes that produce large amounts of testosterone.

Sports minister warns of 'world war'

South Africa's sports minister, Makhenkesi Stofile, said he was disgusted with the media stories and said he felt let down by the IAAF's handling of the matter. Stofile said he has no doubts about Semenya's gender.

"She's a woman, she remains our heroine. We must protect her," he told a Friday news conference to address the media reports.

Stofile accused the IAAF of leaking the gender test results to the media.

"It is very, very clear to us that Caster's human rights are not being respected at all," the minister said. "Neither Caster nor her family deserve this kind of humiliation. None of them has done anything wrong. This is as disgusting as it is unethical."

Asked how South Africa would react if the IAAF ruled that Semenya could no longer compete against women, he said: "I think it will be the third world war. Such a decision would be totally unfair and unjust."

Semenya has made no comment to the reports and has not appeared in public since they emerged. Her coach, Michael Seme, said he was uncertain whether Semenya would compete at the 4,000m women's event at the South African national cross-country championships in Pretoria Saturday.

The IAAF's media director Nick Davies suggested that Athletics South Africa, the local governing body, was hiding the teen and refusing to allow IAAF officials to speak with her abut her testing.

"ASA's actions can have serious consequences for Semenya if we are not able to speak to her soon. In short, it will come down to her refusing to co-operate," Davies told reporters.

"Had it been a drugs issue, she would have been suspended a long time ago," he added, "but this is a unique problem for which the IAAF's rules do not make provision. It is important for us to talk to her about the results of the tests."

Hermaphroditism also called 'intersexuality'

Hermaphroditism, also called intersexuality, is very rare, accounting for only about 0.1 per cent of live births.

Some intersex people choose to live as one sex or the other, adopting the clothing of the gender and sometimes undergoing genital surgery and hormone replacement therapy to blend into the sex they identify with most.

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, head of gender identity services at CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, explains there are five parameters that define gender: external genitalia, chromosomes, gonads (testes or ovaries), hormonal sex, and other internal reproductive structures.

He says at birth, we decide on sex based on external genitalia appearance but some children can have a combination of these parameters.

He says it is quite possible that an 18-year-old may not be aware that the other parameters of their gender don't match their external genitalia.

Semenya is not the first athlete to be at the centre of a track-related gender controversy. Three years ago, Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan lost her medal after failing a gender test.

More than 70 years before that, Polish athlete Stanislawa Walasiewicz was also subjected to scrutiny after she won gold in the 100-metre event at the 1932 Olympics. She too was born with ambiguous genitalia.