Caster Semenya’s family and South African athletics bosses are outraged at an alleged leak of a medical investigation that reportedly found the 800m world champion has “both male and female sexual characteristics”.
The Times informed Semenya’s family of the Australian newspaper’s report on the gender tests performed by IAAF doctors last month.
The 18-year-old’s mother, Dorcus, fumed and accused the media of “causing the family pain” by continuing to report on the controversy.
“Why must jealousy drive people to say such bad things? Why are you bringing all this?” she said, before hanging up.
Semenya’s grandmother, Maphuthi Sekgale, was shocked and angry on hearing the news: “They are crazy. It can only be jealousy that makes them say that she is a man.
“I raised her as a young girl and I have no doubt that she is a girl.
“As the family, we don’t care who is saying what and we also don’t care, even if she won’t be running internationally, but we will always support her athletic talent,” she said
The Daily Telegraph claimed “Semenya has three times the amount of testosterone a ‘normal’ female would have”.
It said the IAAF “is ready to disqualify Semenya from future events” and has not ruled out stripping her of her gold medal.
Athletics SA president Leonard Chuene told The Times last night that he was appalled at “how far people are willing to go to pull down Semenya’s victory”.
“What you are saying to me is like swearing at this little girl. We have no idea where these allegations are coming from because we were told by IAAF that the results would only be out in November,” said Chuene, who has repeatedly denied any gender tests were conducted on the athlete.
Chuene accused unnamed people in Europe of “making up their minds about Caster”.
“[They] will continue spreading these stories until they have ruined her name,” he said.
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