Caster ‘definitely a woman’

2009-08-23 12:12

S’busiso Mseleku and Willem Pelser

Johannesburg – South Africa’s latest athletic sensation was subjected to gender testing twice as a teenager – and she passed each time.

Leon Bammau, secretary of Limpopo Athletics told Rapport on Saturday that Caster Semenya, 18, was tested twice three years ago after local school athletics authorities questioned her gender.

He said Semenya had been discovered as a barefoot cross-country runner.

Koos van der Walt, director of TuksSport commented on the controversy surrounding the athlete by saying, “We have to wait for the result – but at TuksSport we don’t doubt what it is.”

Competitive world

He said the storm raging around the Tuks athlete “was part of the sporting world. It is very competitive and much is at stake.”

Semenya spoke to Rapport from Berlin and said she had endured endless teasing during her childhood and had learnt to defend herself by becoming a bully.

She had to deal with allegations that she was a man for years. During school athletics meets she often had to go with a teacher to a bathroom so that her genitalia could be inspected.

She said she still couldn’t believe she was the new 800m world champion. “I always knew I would be the champion one day but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly.”

- Rapport