caster semenya, 18 years, female.
and she wouldn't have come this far if she wouldn't be a woman!
why should she lie about being female?
i had once, well, ok maybe several times to face a situation where somebody couldn't place me clearly in the male or female changing-room in an indoor-swimming pool at school.
the short hair and coarse voice didn't make that any easier.
but i can tell u one thing, i would have loved to pass as male.
puberty came along and that made it even more confusing.
however, i turned out fine in the end.
keeping the long hair now, though.
had i faked to be a boy, nobody would have called me 'neanderthal girl', so why should i possibly have thought of faking that i am a girl? live would've been much easier.
regarding semenya and her ordeal having to prove every single time her sex, is just another way to make it difficult for good honest and hard working athletes.
she even thought of boycott, but that's exactly what opponents would want.
and the gender test? are there regulations in athletics which dictate a recommended amount of male or female hormones developed through natural production?
so if someone produces naturally more testosterone than estrogen, will they be regulatory-ly classified as advantaged to 'normal-hormone-leveled' women and therefore are not eligibly qualified to take part in competitions, cause the others might think its not 'fair'??
should all women with an extra-ordinary high amount of testosterone have a championship on their own? - surely not!
how about men with an high level of estrogen??
i think we had enough 'classification' in the past 200years for the next couple of 1000 years!
semenya might have had an easier start in life been born a man, but who are we to deny her, her success, she clearly worked very hard for.
and as for classifications, how to place usein bolt? superhuman? even men cant catch up with him! so if women cant catch up with caster semenya, they will just simply have to - deal with it!
just as the runners usein left behind....
if nature brings forward some exceptional athletes every now and again, we should celebrate and appreciate them for what they do, what they deliver, and not whether their appearance suits our expectations or vehemently trying to find a fault or delinquency.
you don't have to be 'male' to be strong and deliver astonishing results.
women have it hard enough, we don't need doubt regarding our sex on top of that.
give us a chance to feel proud of what we are able to achieve, and not reason to feel guilty for being the best a woman can be.
envy is the mother of doubt, and doubt divides us.
lets work together to achieve results through healthy competition, not humiliation and disbelieve. the photos speak for themselves, the result is what really matters, whether the image fits or not. thank you.
hands up for the worlds fastest - women.
2009 caster semenya, 800m, 1:55.45
1983, Jarmila Kratochvilova, 800m, 1:53.28
2008, Pamela Jelimo, 800m, 1:54.01