Caster Semenya Faces Controversy Over Her Gender

Frank Fife, AFP/Getty Images

South African running sensation Caster Semenya is making headlines all over the world today, but it's not because the 18-year-old wowed the world by taking home the gold metal in the 800-meter competition at the World Track and Field Championships in Germany yesterday. Rather, the reason Semenya's such a hot topic is because many people are wondering: Is she really a he?

As the International Association of Athletics Federation recently confirmed, the speedy super athlete has to undergo extensive gender verification tests, and while one would think it'd be ridiculously easy to make the final call, it's actually quite complex -- Semenya has to be examined in painstaking detail by a number of professionals, including a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist and a gender expert, and it could be weeks before the final report is revealed.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told ESPN.com that it's "a medical issue, not an issue of cheating," and the tests are being carried out to prove that Semenya doesn't have an intersex condition or a hormone imbalance that could give her an unfair advantage over her female competitors.

South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane would not confirm or deny that Semenya was having such a test, but did say "We entered Caster as a woman and we want to keep it that way. Our conscience is clear in terms of Caster. We have no reservations at all about that."

Click on the video below to see Semenya respond to whether she is male or female.



Semenya isn't the first female athlete to face questions about her gender. German high-jumper Dora Ratjen, who broke the world record in 1938, was later revealed to be a man named Hermann, and the gold-medal winning Polish runner, Ewa Klobukowska was found to be a man after failing a chromosome test in 1967. And more recently intersex German tennis player Sarah Gronert chose to undergo surgery to have her male sex organs removed and compete against women.