Runner Caster Semenya's Case Raises Bigger Issues Than Just Gender

Are we asking the wrong questions about track athlete Caster Semenya? The 18-year-old South African won the gold medal in the 800-meter race at the world track and field championships in Berlin. But did a woman or a man sprint to win by a jaw-dropping 2.45 seconds?

The International Association of Athletic Federations has asked Semenya to undergo tests to determine her gender. Apparently, a few losers of the race observed that Semenya lacked female cred on the track. Italian runner Elisa Piccione, who came in sixth, said: "For me, she is not a woman."

So Semenya's looks has thrown the outcome of the race into question? Instead of cornrows, should she have sported a floppy ponytail? In place of bushy eyebrows, should Semenya have gotten them threaded before competing? And instead of a flat bosom, should she have gotten some chest help? If so, what an ugly trend. Are female athletes now in the business of hatin' on each other by using the same verbally vicious weapons male-dominated societies have often used?

Then, on the other hand, maybe the IAAF and Piccione are viewing the race through the wrong lens. If the competition were to raise any flags, maybe it should have been the fact that Semenya won by a sizable margin. (The question also could be made of Usain Bolt's recent record-shattering wins.) In the days of rampant steroid use, sports has come under scrutiny because prominent athletes have cheated. Their human gifts were not enough -- they juiced themselves up with supplements. Need we rattle off names of track stars Marian Jones and Ben Johnson? Need we cite luminaries of baseball such as Sammy Sosa, who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, not to mention the juicing rumors surrounding Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire?

If the IAAF determines Semenya is indeed a woman, will that silence Piccione of the European fashion police, whose standard of beauty differs from a vast part of the world? Will Piccione issue a very public apology because imperialistic cattiness is bad sportsmanship in any culture?

But if Semenya is what she and her family says she is -- an 18-year-old woman from Limpopo province in northern South Africa who won fair and square -- will that be enough to satisfy the critics . . . and the losers? Stay tuned.

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