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International Capsules: Commentary: The shameful case of Caster Semenya
Comments 0 | Recommend 0Looks like South African runner Caster Semenya will be able to keep the gold medal she won at the recent world championships in Berlin.
The public humiliation? That will stay with her, too, long after the gold loses its shine.
Three months after she mopped up the field in the women's 800, international sports officials are trying to tie a ribbon on a deal that will likely allow Semenya to keep the world title and prize money she won in Berlin. They're also planning a symposium to make sure the next person they suspect is a man in a female track outfit is at least treated with a bit of decency.
Semenya could also be spared the further indignity of the public release of her most private medical records. If things are handled right, the world may never know the intimate details of her gender tests.
Sadly, it's all too late for the teenager whose worst offense seems to be that she believes she's a woman while the people who look at how fast she runs can't believe she's not a man.
Because there's no deal that can undo the damage already done, no deal that can give Semenya back her self-respect.
And there may never be a way to make a deal to allow her to run again.
Just how it all got to this point is a tale that goes beyond the seemingly simple question of man versus woman. Semenya was always going to draw stares in her first appearance on the world stage simply because of how she looks, but what happened to her in Berlin was shameful beyond description.
South Africa was so desperate to end a medal drought in the world championships that the country's track chief agreed to the unusual — and unprecedented — request by the International Association of Athletics Federations to have gender tests done on Semenya. Then, just hours before she was to run, the IAAF took it upon itself to announce it was investigating whether she was really a woman.
Semenya went out and blew the competition away anyway, running so fast it looked like the other runners were mired in quicksand. She won by nearly two and a half seconds, finishing in 1:55.45, and accepting the congratulations of her fellow runners.
It should have been a triumphant moment in the life of an 18-year-old from a small South African village. It became a media circus where the biggest debate wasn't how fast she ran, but how to figure out if she was telling the truth about what she really was.
It used to be easier for Semenya, whose athletic physique and deep voice always raised suspicion. She faced the same questions before, but there was a simpler way of answering them then.
An article in the current issue of the New Yorker quotes one of her former coaches as saying that she became accustomed at having to go into the restroom with a member of the opposing team so they could look at her private parts before they would race against her back home.
It's not so easy now. The question of gender is a muddled one at best, particularly for a tiny portion of the population born with the physical characteristics of both genders or chromosome disorders. One reason mandatory gender testing for female athletes in the Olympics was dropped in 1999 was that not all women have standard female chromosomes.
The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that the tests indicate Semenya has both male and female sex organs. Her family, though, has always been sure of her gender.
"What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man?" her paternal grandmother, Maputhi Sekgala, told the South African daily The Times. "It is God who made her look that way."
Her grandmother isn't her only backer. Many in South Africa have come to her defense, suggesting that both ignorance and racism contributed to the public spectacle in Berlin.
Semenya, meanwhile, has begun college and is still training. But the attention has taken its toll.
"It's not so easy," she recently told the Guardian newspaper. "The university is OK but there is not many other places I can go. People want to stare at me now. They want to touch me. I'm supposed to be famous.
"I don't think I like it so much."
She may not like the future much better. Though technically still allowed to compete, that could change depending on both the results of her tests and new guidelines for dealing with "ambiguous" gender tests that the International Olympic Committee will look at in January.
Even if Semenya gets the green light, it's hard to imagine how she can run knowing every eye in every stadium will be studying her intently, trying to determine if she is really a he.
Yes, it will be nice if track officials make amends by allowing her to keep her gold medal and $60,000 first prize.
Would be even nicer if they could give her back her dignity, too.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org
Bolt, Gay set for 3 showdowns in Diamond League
MONACO — Sprint stars Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Tyson Gay of the United States will race each other at least three times at elite Diamond League meets next year.
Track and field's governing body said on Saturday that the two fastest men in history are contracted to compete in seven of the 14 cities in Asia, Europe and the United States featured in the inaugural global series.
The rivals must decide which meets will host their showdowns, over 100 or 200 meters.
"The only thing I know is I will be racing Bolt at least three times or more," Gay said before a Diamond League launch ceremony on Saturday.
The new circuit will be the top tier of track and field in 2010 with no Olympics or World Championships on the schedule.
Bolt, the 100 and 200 world record holder and a three-time Olympic champion, took Gay's 100 world title in a record 9.58 seconds at Berlin in August, leaving the 27-year-old American with silver despite a lifetime best of 9.71.
Gay then ran 9.69 — equaling the 23-year-old Jamaican's previous world mark set in the Beijing Olympic final — at Shanghai in September.
One of Bolt, Gay and Asafa Powell, the third fastest man in history, will be compete at each meet on the circuit.
Other elite athletes committed to seven Diamond League appearances are distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, pole vaulters Yelena Isinbayeva and Steve Hooker, 400 runner Sanya Richards, high jumper Blanka Vlasic and javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen.
The Diamond League offers $6.63 million in total prize money across 32 track and field disciplines, each staged seven times over the series. A four-carat diamond will be presented to the season-ending points leader in each event.
The series opens at Doha, Qatar, in May, and stops at Shanghai, New York City and several European capital cities before concluding with two finals of 16 events each at Zurich and Brussels in August.
The new series replaces the six-city Golden League that offered athletes a share of a $1 million jackpot for six victories. However, the series never left Europe and could not find room for some less glamorous events.
Other cities on the Diamond League circuit include Oslo; Rome; Eugene, Ore.; Lausanne, Switzerland; Gateshead, Britain; Paris; Monaco; Stockholm; and London.
-- Graham Dunbar
Olympics
American Napier wins bobsled gold at Lake Placid
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — John Napier practically grew up on the bobsled track at Mount Van Hoevenberg. For one day, he owned it.
While his mom, Betsy, rang her giant golden cowbell, the 22-year-old Napier slid the race of his dreams on Saturday, beating U.S. teammate Steven Holcomb to win a World Cup two-man race on his home track at Lake Placid.
Napier and brakeman Charles Berkeley defeated Holcomb and brakeman Justin Olsen by 0.26 seconds with a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 53.62 seconds.
Ivo Ruegg and Roman Handschin of Switzerland were third. Pierre Lueders and brakeman David Bissett of Canada finished fourth.
In the women's race later, the Germans dominated as Cathleen Martini and Sandra Kiriasis finished 1-2 for the second straight World Cup event and teammate Claudia Schramm barely missed the podium, finishing fourth to Canada's Kaillie Humphries by 0.01.
It was a somewhat disappointing day for the U.S. team. Shauna Rohbock and Elana Meyers were the top U.S. finishers in fifth, though they were just 0.07 behind the Canadians. Erin Pac and Michelle Rzepka finished seventh, and Bree Schaaf and Emily Azevedo tied the Swiss sled of Sabina Hafner and Marina Gilardoni for ninth.
"Yeah, it's annoying," Rohbock said of the Germans' performance. "But they can be 1-2 now. We'll take 1-2 at the end."
It was the first podium finish for Napier, who is competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. That it came on the same mountain where his late father Bill, former president of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, once competed made it more special.
"To have a win at my home track is just awesome," said Napier, who first saw the track (it was rebuilt in 2000) when his mom tucked him under her coat and walked it when he was 2 weeks old. "I was actually up in the old 1980 start house, and I was thinking of how ironic it was that 30 years ago (my father) was in there warming up. There's kind of a little bit of irony there. I hope I served my father's legacy well."
Bill Napier died in June 2005 of kidney cancer, but not before skipping a cancer treatment to watch his son compete here in his first World Cup event.
Betsy Napier, a former bobsledder, tried to mask her emotions.
"I was nervous, but I don't control the track, the weather, the way the guys feel, so I have to go with it," she said. "I'm just glad he did it here on his home track. I met my husband here at the track."
Napier built a slim 0.15-second lead over the Swiss team on the first trip down the 20-curve track, with Holcomb another 0.16 behind. Napier said he won because he was in the mix at the start, posting the eighth- and fifth-fastest times at the top.
"I've never been this close at the start," he said. "And I think it proves what I can do at the bottom when I have great push starts."
It was rarefied air for Napier, whose best career World Cup finish was a fifth in four-man last season at Park City. He asked teammate Holcomb, who won the four-man world championship here in February, for advice.
"I leaned on great guys like Holcomb, who's been there before," said Napier, who lives in a house he built on Bobrun Road just inside the entrance to the Olympic complex. "I asked him, 'What the heck do you do? I've never been in this position.' He told me to just go hang out, chill out, act like it's a practice run."
"I tried to keep him calm, not trying to put too much pressure on him," Holcomb said. "He did a great job. It was a good showing."
The third U.S. sled driven by Mike Kohn with brakeman Nick Cunningham finished ninth. Kohn filled in for injured driver Todd Hays, who hurt his left hamstring last week at Park City, Utah.
When Napier crossed the finish line a winner after posting the second-best time on the second run, he was greeted by his teammates and scores of flag-waving American fans. Track manager Tony Carlino went to the side of the finish house and began sobbing, not because he had just lost a long-standing bet with Napier to quit his smoking habit."We called him a track rat. He's been running around here since he was born. He started driving peewee bobsleds when he was 8," said Carlino, a close friend of Bill Napier. "It's a testament to what hard work and dedication to a sport can do.
"It's a sign for America that any dream can be achieved, and here it is, right in front of us. A tall, skinny kid who worked hard, worked hard, worked hard and it's paid off."
Learning disability athletes return to Paralympics
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Athletes with learning disabilities will be allowed to compete in the Paralympics again at London in 2012.
The International Paralympic Committee general assembly voted on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur to overturn the ban that had been in place since the Spanish basketball team was revealed to have cheated at the 2000 Sydney Games. Ten of the 12 Spaniards were stripped of their gold medals when it was revealed they suffered no mental handicap.
"Today's achievement is the outcome of a unique and excellent cooperation between sports governance and the scientific community," IPC president Philip Craven said in a statement.
The IPC said there will be a rigorous classification procedure, with medical files submitted for review before athletes proceed to onsite testing that focuses on "sports intelligence."
Full criteria for intellectually disabled athletes will be available early next year. Their inclusion will not reduce the number of athletes from other classes or events in 2012.
"I very much welcome this and am delighted that athletes with intellectual disabilities will be competing in the 2012 Games," said Tessa Jowell, the British minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. "It wasn't a simple decision, but nobody who's been at the Special Olympics would doubt that its competitors are every bit as committed as the Paralympians."
Cycling
Cyclist Pfannberger gets lifetime ban for doping
VIENNA — Cyclist Christian Pfannberger has been banned for life by the national anti-doping agency NADA after a second doping offense, the Austrian cycling federation said Saturday.
Pfannberger, a two-time Austrian national champion, pulled out of the Giro d'Italia and was suspended by his Katusha team in May after he tested positive for the banned drug EPO in an out-of-competition check on March 19.
Pfannberger had previously been suspended for two years for testosterone in 2004.
The 30-year-old cyclist has denied any wrongdoing and can appeal the ban at the agency's arbitrary committee.
"This is what we expected after he had been caught twice," cycling federation board member Herbert Kocher said. "We are fighting hard against doping so we are satisfied with this result."
Pfannberger and NADA could not be reached for comment.
Pfannberger rode for Barloworld and Elk Haus before joining Katusha this year. He had his best season in 2008, finishing fifth in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, sixth in the Amstel Gold Race and eighth at the road world championships in Varese, Italy.
His ban marked the third doping scandal to rock cycling in Austria within a year.
In November 2008, Bernhard Kohl was banned for two years after a doping violation at last year's Tour de France, where he finished third and won the polka-dot jersey for best climber.
Kohl admitted to using the new blood-booster CERA and later retired from the sport.
In March, Christoph Kerschbaum became the first Austrian athlete arrested under the country's new anti-doping laws for allegedly selling EPO and other performance-enhancing substances.
Earlier this year, the country's cycling federation had called for doping to be classified as a criminal offense, leading to harsher punishment for riders who use banned substances.
As of Jan. 1, 2010, athletes in Austria caught doping could be charged with serious fraud and face prison terms of up to 10 years, if a proposed amendment to the national fraud act is ratified by parliament later this year.
Skiing
Russia may face sanctions for doping in skiing
MOSCOW — The head of skiing's governing body says the Russian ski federation and Olympic committee could face sanctions if there are more doping cases in the country.
International Ski Federation president Gian-Franco Kasper said Saturday that "we are not happy with what is going in the Russian (ski) federation."
Four Russian cross-country skiers were banned for two years last season after testing positive for EPO. Three Russian biathletes were also given bans this year for having used the same endurance-booster.
Kasper said that "if things do not change we will have to take action against the Russian NOC or whoever is responsible."
Kasper was in Moscow for a promotional parallel slalom event on a huge ramp.
Hafsas, Bjorgen of Norway win freestyle races
BEITOSTOELEN, Norway — Ronny Hafsas and Marit Bjorgen of Norway won the opening World Cup cross-country ski races on Saturday.
Hafsas edged Vincent Vittoz of France by 0.2 seconds, covering the 15-kilometer freestyle race in 34 minutes, 42.1 seconds. It was his first World Cup victory. Matti Heikkinen of Finland was third .
Earlier, Bjorgen won the women's 10K race.
She led from the start and finished in 24 minutes, 48.3 seconds to beat Charlotte Kalla of Sweden by 29.7 seconds. Anna Haag of Sweden was third. Defending overall World Cup champion Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland was 12th.
It was Bjorgen's 31st individual World Cup victory.
Hirscher, Borssen win parallel slalom
MOSCOW — Marcel Hirscher of Austria won the second edition of the parallel slalom Champions Cup in a promotion of Alpine ski events for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Therese Borssen of Sweden dominated the first women's event on Saturday.
Hirscher beat Steve Missillier of France, while Borssen edged world champion Maria Reisch of Germany.
They were among 21 skiers, along with three Russian champions, invited to compete in the exhibition by the International Ski Federation. They competed on a giant ramp erected at Vorobyevy Hills.
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