Caster Semenya Sex Test Makes Us Ask: What’s Wrong With Women Competing Against Genetic Supermonsters?

As you may have heard by now, women’s 800m world-record holder Caster Semenya has undergone tests to determine if she’s actually male and could be stripped of her gold medal at the Worlds. But, we wonder, what’s the big deal if sports is really nothing but genetic freaks competing against one another?

Now, before Marlon Wayans puts pen to paper on his new hilarious “black guy poses as a women to win the Olympics” movie, let’s be clear: this has nothing to do with, say, Just One of the Guys. Nobody’s alleging that Semenya has been knowingly taping a dong against “his” leg all these years. As the Sports Scientists note, this isn’t an issue of cultural gender, but of medical definitions of sex. Semenya has already passed “physical” gender tests (y’know - lifting up her skirt), so all that’s left is examining her genetic makeup to see if she’s actually an intersex athlete: not fully female or male.

This is no small predicament; the 18-year old South African is dominating the sport, easily taking the gold at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, with competitors crying foul and pointing to her visible male characteristics like facial hair and pronounced muscles. Plus, if it’s determined that she’s too male for the sport, the world-class athlete is suddenly in a competitive limbo. Her world record time in the 800 of 1:56 puts her behind all but one male runner in all seven heats in Berlin this year.

Clearly, if it turns out that she is intersex the issue is that her male characteristics are giving her a natural genetic advantage over the other women. To which we say: so what?

If anything, sports is defined as competition between hard-working athletes with genetic pre-dispositions. Nature and nurture work hand in hand: it’s not like all 7-foot tall dudes are great at basketball or all 300-pound guys can play in the NFL. Life hands world-class athletes certain advantages, and then they utilize those advantages as best they can. Semenya may have some genetic advantages, but it didn’t automatically make her a world-class athlete. Plus, Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps are both known for having incredibly low levels of lactic acid, which prevents their muscles from getting tired. That’s a pretty hefty genetic advantage over other athletes, but nobody asks if that should disqualify them from competition.

The average American man stands at 5′ 9″, but the average NBA player is almost a foot taller at 6′ 7″. This is undoubtedly a genetic advantage, as is the endurance necessary for playing pro basketball. But no one calls it unfair that Tim Duncan is an agile seven-footer: they just call him the greatest power forward in the history of the game. And, more to the point, there is no ceiling to the genetic advantages allowed for male athletes. Nobody’s been disqualified from competing in male sports for being “too male” or having natural testosterone levels that are “too high.” Male athletes have to contend with whatever hulking monster comes their way, until that hulking monster gets old and never ever gets back on D and then gets traded to Cleveland.

So, suck it up ladies. If male athletes can withstand snarling hyper-testosteroned beasts like Mike Tyson, Lawrence Taylor and Junior Seau you can get used to your pummelings and congratulate Caster Semenya on a race well run. At least until they make some intersex league based on some random hypogonadic testosterone level. But watching the two or three runners in the world who’d qualify for that just doesn’t sound like a good time to us.

Caster Semenya’s sex in doubt, as reports of sex testing and potential disqualification surface [Sports Scientists]
SAfrican in gender flap gets gold for 800 win [AP]