Recommended Posts

New world 800m champion Caster Semenya has been asked to take a gender test, according to athletics' governing body.

The International Association of Athletics Federations says it demanded the test three weeks ago amid fears she should not be able to run as a woman.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said the "extremely complex, difficult" test results were not due for several weeks.

The South African athletics federation insists it is "completely sure" that Semenya, 18, is a female.

"We would not have entered her in the female competition if we had any doubts," said a statement.

Semenya won gold in impressive fashion on Wednesday, leaving her rivals trailing as she won in a time of one minute, 55.45 seconds.

Defending champion Janeth Jepkosgei was second, a massive 2.45 seconds adrift, with Britain's Jenny Meadows taking bronze.

Semenya did not attend a post-race news conference following her success, but IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss did appear before the media.

"We know you want to talk to her, but she is young, she is inexperienced and she is not able to reply properly to all your questions," he said.

"I will answer for her. The decision not to put her up was taken by the IAAF and the South African federation.

"I repeat, she was not prepared for a situation like this."

Weiss insisted the IAAF had handled the situation as best as it could and defended the timing of the announcement to test Semenya.

"She was unknown three weeks ago," he said. "No one could have anticipated this. We are fast but we are not a lion."

He added: "If it is proved that she is not a female, she will be withdrawn and the medals revised. At the moment, the athlete must be given the benefit of the doubt."

Semenya burst on to the world stage when she ran 1.56.72 in Bambous last month, smashing her previous personal best by more than seven seconds.

She also broke Zola Budd's long-standing South African record and arrived here as the newly-crowned African junior champion.

"In the case of this athlete, following her breakthrough in the African junior championships, the rumours, the gossip was starting to build up," said Davies.

"The gender verification test is an extremely complex procedure. The situation today is that we do not have any conclusive evidence that she should not be allowed to run."

A group of doctors, including an endocrinologist, a gynaecologist, an internal medicine expert, an expert on gender and a psychologist, have started the testing procedure but it is uncertain when the results will be known.

Weiss said testing was being done in Berlin and South Africa but admitted it was a complex issue.

"At this stage, it's confusing," he said. "Personally I have no clue what's going on. I rely on and trust our doctors. We would have preferred not to have had a controversy."

After the race, Meadows said: "It's up to the IAAF to sort it out. You can't do anything about who is out there.

"There's just eight people on the track and you just have to make sure you're in the first three to get a medal."

BBC

What are your thoughts on this? I don't really follow track, so I'm not sure what a 2.45 second lead means other than that's a huge gap. It looks similar to the '97 Wilson Kipketer 800m, although that's a world record race.

1) Do you think they have a right to perform a gender test?

2) If the results do come out that she's either a transsexual, that she has Swyer syndrome, or something similar, do you think she should still be counted? Would that be fair to the other women?

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/814710-semenya-told-to-take-gender-test/
Share on other sites

If they want to spend the money to do it, then so be it. If she's got nothing to hide (no pun intended), then she should comply.

It would be interesting if she is really male and transgender. She has a vagina but is genetically supposed to be a male.

I know I'm not the brightest star in the sky, but is it really that hard to tell if a person is a woman or not?

There are people that are born with both genitalia at birth. Parents and doctors can decide what to do with the child and make them one sex or another. She could be female in appearance but have the genetic aspects of a man. Chromosomal tests would need to be conducted to see if she's XX or XY.

What would you consider female though? Looks like a woman? Has a vagina? Has a functioning female reproductive system? Has XX chromosome?

The reproductive role of the organism. If it has eggs and is unable to fertilize those eggs by itself then it is a female. Why do people act like gender is something mysterious? The definition is very clear: "being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces fertilizable gametes (ova) from which offspring develop".

The reproductive role of the organism. If it has eggs and is unable to fertilize those eggs by itself then it is a female. Why do people act like gender is something mysterious? The definition is very clear: "being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces fertilizable gametes (ova) from which offspring develop".

So transsexuals basically get the boot when it comes to sports?

A "genetically proven woman" with a muscular body of a man would be unfair for any other women.

I mean, why we separate women and men in sports? Because the men are generally stronger and more athletic at the base.

If we start to accept women with a body that have more characteristic like a men, why we don't just put all sports unisex then?

I don't know what is the limits of fairness in this, I'm not a sport regulator, but in theory, I don't see why we would permit women with man body to participate in women classes.

A "genetically proven woman" with a muscular body of a man would be unfair for any other women.

I mean, why we separate women and men in sports? Because the men are generally stronger and more athletic at the base.

If we start to accept women with a body that have more characteristic like a men, why we don't just put all sports unisex then?

I don't know what is the limits of fairness in this, I'm not a sport regulator, but in theory, I don't see why we would permit women with man body to participate in women classes.

Aha! An answer I like.

What would you consider female though? Looks like a woman? Has a vagina? Has a functioning female reproductive system? Has XX chromosome?

The absence or presence of a Y chromosome is usually the defining test. You can not alter your genetic make-up, no matter how you alter your outward appearance.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Last week I was investigating an issue with contacts and tried using the new Outlook. In the real (Classic) Outlook, you can easily go to any Outlook folder and present it in a Table View, then customize the columns to show/sort any field, which was exactly what I needed. But of course, the new Outlook doesn't have this feature at all. I gave up. Oh, and can we possibly stop claiming the new Outlook has PST support? What it really has is the ability to use the real Outlook in the background to pretend to have PST support. There is no PST support without the real Outlook installed.
    • Honestly just before Panos left it started to feel like MS just wasnt interested in them so they were being less innovative with them, and then when he DID leave for Amazon its kind of clear the direction is gone. It felt like Panos had both goals and drive, and a vision, but it felt like no matter what his title/department was the Surface devices never had the full interest of the rest of management and he was just pushing a bolder up a hill that MS was adding dirt to as he went.
    • A roguelike and a 4X strategy game are free to claim on the Epic Games Store by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe The final leg of the Epic Games Store's mystery giveaways promotion just landed, and it brought along two more games to keep. Last week's Lonestar and Calico giveaways have now been replaced with copies of Rogue Waters and Songs of Conquest to claim for PC gamers. As always, the game is yours to add permanently to your Epic Games Store library within the next seven days. Diving into the games, Songs of Conquest is developed by Lavapotion. This is a turn-based 4X strategy experience that has players making tough decisions and participating in tactical combat while also managing their kingdom. "Songs of Conquest is a turn-based strategy game inspired by 90s classics. Lead powerful magicians called Wielders and venture to lands unknown," explains the developer. "Wage battles against armies that dare oppose you, hunt for powerful artifacts and expand your territory. The world is ripe for the taking – seize it." Meanwhile, Rogue Waters comes from developer Ice Code Games. This rogue-lite experience has you taking the role of Captain Cutter as he commands his ship and crew through procedurally generated encounters. You'll be recruiting and training crew, use sea creatures, and battle with other ships and pirates. "Set sail as Captain Cutter, a pirate caught in a deadly struggle for power and vengeance," adds the developer. "Navigate dangerous waters, unleash mythical sea creatures, and outwit enemies as you chase legendary treasure and confront dark secrets." The newly available Rogue Waters and Songs of Conquest giveaways on the Epic Games Store are set to run until June 11, giving PC gamers seven days to claim the latest offer. Once this closes out, a new freebie will take its place on the same day, which is slated to be Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks. Don't forget that mobile gamers can check out the Epic Game Store's weekly giveaways on Android and iOS to grab a freebie there as well.
    • Still using Classic Outlook? Microsoft highlights 15 reasons to switch to New Outlook by Usama Jawad As many of you may know, Microsoft has been trying to get customers to ditch Classic Outlook in favor of New Outlook for quite some time now. To that end, it has added numerous capabilities to the latter, including PST features, and it is working on several more, such as a unified inbox. However, customer response has been a bit lukewarm so far, with many considering the New Outlook to be "hot garbage". Now, Microsoft has highlighted 15 features that users can leverage in New Outlook in yet another attempt to get customers to migrate. Although not all of the 15 capabilities are exclusive to New Outlook, in fact, most of them are available in Classic Outlook as well. But Microsoft hopes that this combination of familiar and fresh features will be able to attract existing users as well as new ones. For ease of readability, we have summarized the 15 features below: Pin an email: This makes it easier to track important emails Snooze an email: You can temporarily snooze an email thread for a specific time frame until it becomes relevant again. This can be very useful in scenarios where you don't feel like actively following a thread or simply want to follow up on a later date Add multiple categories at the same time: You can assign multiple categories to an email through a single, simplified interface Sweep: As the name implies, you can define automated move processes on your inbox to declutter it, rather than cleaning it up manually Schedule send: Does exactly what it says on the tin, and can be useful when accommodating recipients in different timezones Simplified folder sharing: The sharing process has been simplified so permissions are automatically applied on parent folders Follow a meeting: This is an RSVP option that lets people know that you won't be able to join the meeting but would still like to access a recap Save calendar views: You can save different views for the calendar based on different workflows Improved meeting tracking: Organizers have more controls in viewing meeting responses, such as the ability to sort and download them. Typically useful when there is a large audience Meeting recap: The Outlook Calendar surfaces a meeting recap with recordings, transcripts, and shared files Filtered views: Allows you to declutter your Calendar so that it's easier to scan and schedule Change a recurring event: Users can modify future events of a series of meetings while preserving the configuration of previous ones Rename your email account: This labeling makes it easier to identify multiple accounts in Outlook Modern themes: Exactly what the name says, plus Dark Mode Keyboard shortcuts: This facilitates flexible user behavior as customers can choose between Outlook for Windows shortcuts, Outlook for the web, or turn them off completely There you have it. It's a decent list, but it remains to be seen if it will move the needle in a meaningful way for users who are attached to Classic Outlook. Again, a lot of the aforementioned features are already available in Outlook Classic, but for some, native functionality is not present, and people typically resort to workarounds. Microsoft will be hoping that it's primarily those capabilities that get people to finally switch.
    • Please I need help I been trying to find this secure boot on my ColorFul motherboard in the bios But i cant i turned off CSM everything watch every video i cant find it. BATTLE-AX B660M-HD DELUXE V20
  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      mobandz earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • Apprentice
      fernan99 went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • One Month Later
      nothanks earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      B2Proxy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      One Year In
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      478
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      247
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      79
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      76
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      60
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!