I find this story fascinating. It’s about a gender test being demanded of an athlete, South Africa’s Caster Semenya, who is competing at the world games. The world track and field federation calls this test, “extremely complex, difficult,” involving a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender. I’m curious what constitutes such an expert. The spokesman for the track and field federation is quoted as saying, 
- If there’s a problem and it turns out that there’s been a fraud … that someone has changed sex, then obviously it would be much easier to strip results. However, if it’s a natural thing and the athlete has always thought she’s a woman or been a woman, it’s not exactly cheating.
Where I suddenly paused was the phrase, “the athlete has always thought she’s a woman…” This should have been well taken care of before the world championships in Berlin, and importantly, how difficult and hurtful this must be for Ms. Semenya. The comments raise some interesting points, and generate questions about what it means to compete against legitimate vs. illegitimate opponents.
