Top Female Runner Caster Semenya Declared a Hermaphrodite

Last month top female runner Caster Semenya of South Africa -- who recently won the women's world championship in the 800 meters with the amazing time of 1:55.45 -- had her gender questioned, and was submitted to sexual identity examinations by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Today the IAFF indicated that Semenya is a hermaphrodite with both male and female biological characteristics. She has no ovaries nor a womb, and her body was found to contain three times the average testosterone count for females...

Semenya's family has doggedly sworn to her femininity throughout the controversy. "She is my little girl," said her father; "I know who and what my child is," said her mother. "Caster is all girl, and no one can change that."

The African National Congress issued a statement "condemn[ing] the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style."

The inquiries have also been denounced by a group of South African feminists: "We wish [Semenya], her friends and her family strength in dealing with this blatant gender discrimination... to Caster's detractors or apologists, hang your heads in shame for not 'naming' the issue for what it is and for perpetuating gender stereotypes and discrimination in her individual case and in society as a whole."