After Atalanta

Sh*t's getting real in Russia. Every day I see a new set of news articles, blog posts, and various other forms of commentary and updates about how Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws will affect the upcoming Olympic Games. As I wrote about already, the IOC isn't exerting a whole lot of pressure. And, at the time of my last post about this issue, I was leaning toward boycott--or at least bringing it up as a possibility to encourage some more meaningful discussion. But I read a very thoughtful article about how a boycott would serve, in part, to closet some openly gay athletes who would not be given a chance to compete in Sochi. I was compelled by New Zealand speed skater Blake Skjellerup's comments in particular. Skjellerup asserted last week that he would go to Sochi and "speak out rather than sit out."  The IOC had said that no one visiting Sochi for the games in February (athlete, coach, fan, media, etc.) would be subject to the laws. But the Russian sport...

There is a tie for the third spot on the women's 100 meters (running) US Olympic team. No solution yet on how to determine which runner, Allyson Felix or Jeneba Tarmoh, will get the spot. Justin Gatlin, the men's 100 meter champion at the trials, suggested they two women wrestle in out--in either Jello or mud. I am sure they appreciated being given two options. Gatlin got a lot of crap for the comment which many have--not surprisingly--deemed sexist. But he said it was taken out of context. Oh--do you mean the context of patriarchy where you think all kinds of comments are permissible? The thing about dominant ideologies is that they all have a little bit of wiggle room; there's a lot of pushing and pulling; and hegemony has been known to spring a leak.

Caster Semenya is on something. Say that about almost any other track and field athlete (or cyclist-- even the now officially retired "I've- never tested positive" Lance Armstrong remains under scrutiny) and you think doping. An athlete seeking an unfair advantage. But not Semenya--and not, according to secret and not-so-secret sources--are numerous other female athletes who apparently are meeting standards of performance, of hormone levels, of muscle mass not associated with the socially acceptable definition of female. Interventions have been made. Drugs administered. Surgeries completed. At least that's the impression given by this article . We all know the controversy over Semenya's performance and appearance. When it was seemingly over, the horror over the whole experience--the invasion of privacy, the (largely undiscussed) racism and colonialism, the general ickiness of it all--was supposed to be a closed chapter. An additional stain, but one that the Th...

It's Patriots Day here in Massachusetts. Many of us natives grow up thinking we get the day off because of the marathon in Boston. But it's an actual holiday here. Good luck to the all the runners. Sorry about the weather. It was quite temperate last week. And if you're a female runner, sorry you won't be able to set any world records no matter how fast you run. As many might recall, the governing body of international track and field decided last year that no women could record world records in mixed gender events because of the potential to be paced by elite male runners. The critique of thi s rule has lead the IAAF to reconsider --which they will formally do sometime soon. But as of today, the rule stands. So women running today can only set a "world best." UPDATE: The women's elite runners went off earlier. Does that mean they can set a world record? (Not that today's conditions are amenable to that.)

The Women's Sports Foundation posted this article from USA Today on its Facebook feed this morning. It has, as of this writing, one "like." It's about the International Association of Athletics Foundation (IAAF), the organization that governs track and field, and their decision to institute a policy about women with too much male hormone. This announcement, made in South Korea where the next world championships will take place, is clearly a result of the Caster Semenya fiasco two year ago. Here are the new rules as explained in the article: Women with hyperandrogenism [overproduction of male homrones] will be eligible to compete in female competition if their androgen levels are below the men's range or, if within the male range, they have an androgen resistance which means they derive no competitive advantage. Here's what I don't know too much about--the construction of these ranges. So I cannot comment on where these lines are drawn or even who is drawi...

It bolsters my faith in the media and humanity generally to read pieces like Gregg Doyel's column on the negative responses to Caster Semenya this past weekend. Doyel, writing for CBS Sports starts: Someday soon, Caster Semenya could become the fastest half-miler of all time. I'm positive she's fast enough. I hope she's tough enough. Because some of us won't be classy enough. And he goes on to defend Semenya's participation and chastise the poor losers and admonish the media and hope for the best--though he, like myself, fears the worst. Let's hope we're both wrong.

So in response to the comments of athletes, notably a female runner from Canada, about the recent performances of Caster Semenya, another Canadian, bike racer Kristen Worley, has made some very insightful comments. Worley is is male to female transsexual who competes internationally. She called her fellow Canadian, Diane Cummins, to task for her comments that running against Semenya was the same as running against a man. Worley, who co-founded Coalition of Athletes for Inclusion in Sport, worked behind the scenes on Semena's behalf during the whole ordeal, which she describes like this: “But when a woman does it [excels like Usain Bolt], [a woman] who didn’t actually set a world record (in winning at the Berlin worlds last year), who (more than 10) women have run faster than..., who didn’t set a meet record, we throw her into stirrups and virtually rape her. We did that because of the way her face looks and her voice.” I was a little concerned that Worley revealed Semenya's con...

Dear track and field athletes: Hope you like needles, because we're going to test your testosterone levels before every competition and enter you into the appropriate category the day of your race. Sure this will cost us millions and millions of dollars but since you all want things fair and fair seems to be based on the level of testosterone these days based on responses to Caster Semenya's latest race win, let's just do it. It will be exciting, right? For us: we'll get to watch multiple race finals instead of just one. I mean you'll have no idea who your competition is until the race. You'll have no idea which category you'll be in until that race. This testing system will not only take care of people "on the very fringe of the normal athlete female biological composition" but those who get advantages from being at certain points in their menstrual cycle. And we won't have those silly labels like "fastest woman in the world"; we c...

I have seen several articles/editorials since Caster Semenya has resumed racing. But this one is by far the best. (I won't even link to the really problematic one from a male sportswriter from Kenya who seemed to have some sympathy for Semenya's situation but in the end he deemed Semenya not-quite-woman and stated that she should bow out gracefully from her competitive career.) I recommend the above-linked editorial from the New Statesman in which writer Laurie Penny starts with Semenya's racing kit last week (it was pink!) and shares some (rumored) information about the extent of the testing Semenya was forced, by the IAAF, to undergo. If you have to look that hard and take pictures...guess gender isn't that obvious after all.

What seemed like endless tests and discussions over the gender of South African runner Caster Semenya have apparently come to an end with the IAAF (the international governing body of track and field) ruling that Semenya can continue (after the imposed one-year hiatus) to race against women. I guess that means the powers that be decided she was a woman. The findings will not be released of course because of confidentiality reasons--not that the whole thing was super secret to begin with. I believe confidentiality has already been pretty much blown apart. So the IAAF has deemed her eligible but they cannot say why (not that they should) but the attention they brought onto Semenya isn't likely to dissipate with her new clearance. This Salon column on the news notes not just that Semenya came under suspicion because she defied gender norms, but that the attention that her story garnered because of her non-conformity is similar to the stories from women's sports in the past few ye...

I know the margin of victory in track and field events is often minuscule. People win by a proverbial hair or nose or something. But losing by a string? Or rather losing because one was wearing a string, in the form of a friendship bracelet? And not just losing the event, but losing the meet and thus the championship for one's team. Oh yeah, and losing because the opposing team pointed out your "jewelry" which required your disqualification and gave the tattle tale coach's team the victory--by default. That's rough. And that's what happened in California a couple of weeks ago when pole vaulter Robin Laird successfully cleared a height that gave her team the win in the meet and the league title. She was wearing a friendship bracelet when she jumped, an infraction (because it is considered jewelry), that cost her team the aforementioned accolades when the opposing team coach, let's call him Coach Machiavelli (since I just finished reading The Prince), pointe...

Wow--I just don't know what to do with this story (kindly sent to me by Sean at Sportsbabel ). Australian track and field star Jana Rawlinson, who specializes in the hurdles, recently had her breast implants removed. Not because she didn't like the way they looked: "I absolutely loved having big boobs" she said. No, it was because she didn't want to "short-change Australia" in the 2012 Olympics. She wanted to be the fittest she could be and I guess that meant ditching the implants. Curious, curious, curious. Why would she add them in the first place? [OK; just found this article about when the news of the implants was publicly revealed.] Olympic-level track athletes usually start running pretty early in their lives. Likely earlier than the decision to have implants would be made. Actually, we can infer that Rawlinson was indeed already an athlete when she chose to have breast augmentation because the reason behind the implants, she says, was that she did...

So it turns out the rumors around Caster Semenya are still based on things that very loosely resemble facts. Semenya has no intention of suing either the ASA or IAAF. She has retained a lawyer--the same firm that represented Oscar Pistorius in battle against the IAAF to run in able-bodied events with is cheetah legs. But the lawyers are there to help with what whatever issues arise from the continued inquisition over Semenya's gender. I am kind of disappointed.

On December 22 the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the case of female ski jumpers trying to get into the 2010 Olympics. This was the last ditch effort of the group which has pursued legal means and made appeals to the IOC, including a letter to President Jacques Rogge--who refused to grant the group's request for a meeting. I was pleased to see that South African runner Caster Semenya has not faded away after speculations about her gender and intense invasions of privacy. Instead she is fighting back-- with a lawsuit against IAAF and Athletic South Africa (ASA) for leaking information about the gender testing. The bungling of her case has also resulted in the president and board of the ASA to step down. It appears that testing began before Semenya went to Berlin for the World Championships and that ASA president Leonard Cheune decided to send her anyway because results were not yet in. But, as we know, questions were raised and information that should have stayed private was...

Thankfully it appears that South African runner Caster Semenya is not mired in depression or confusion over the recent questioning and testing of her gender and sex and biology. Last weekend The Guardian ran a lengthy essay on what Semenya is up to these days: training. And included many photos of the athlete with her teammates and coaches. There was controversy over whether Semenya's conversations with the writer were on-the-record and if she knew that her talks with him would be included in the article. I have only glanced at the article myself so I cannot comment on its accuracy or fairness or sensitivity in covering all the attendant issues. This week the IAAF ruled that Semenya could keep her medal and her prize money, but discussions are stil underway about whether she will be allowed to compete in the future. The IAAF has allegedly said they will not reveal the results of all the tests they conducted. (Not an especially reassuring statement given how information has been l...

...'cause they are going to figure out what sex is in ONE YEAR! Yep, since the Castor Semenya "situation" (which they handled poorly though I haven't heard any kind of admittance of regret--unfortunately), I guess the governing body of track and field has decided they need some better criteria for determining sex. So a committee has been formed and they are charged with determining the parameters of sex. Did I mention they are going to do it in one year? Someone give these people a book by Thomas Laqueur , please. (But not Solitary Sex --I don't think they will need that one for this particular project.)

In the wake of the leak to the press about some findings from the medical examination of Caster Semenya, Dave Zirin and Sherry Wolf (I am going to hear her talk tonight!) have another Nation column about the situation. They take to task the IAAF of course but also Australia (probably not the whole country) who called for the initial examination and the Australian press that printed the leak from some IAAF official, and all the people--officials and press--that continue to use the quite unenlightened term "hermaphrodite." One would have hoped that the people who were actually doing the examining would know better. But even some using the term intersex are transferring the literal definition of hermaphrodite. There are many intersex conditions; they do not all--actually very few--manifest in the presence of both (historically defined) male and female genitalia. Dr. Alice Dreger must be very busy these days. I think every member of the IAAF and any person in the media who has c...

And troubling news all around really. Unofficially, the "gender tests" Caster Semenya underwent during and after the World Championships indicate that she has internal testes and no ovaries or womb. She has pulled out of a race in South Africa that she had said she would compete in. It seems doubtful that her gold medal from worlds will be taken away from her because it was not a doping case and because so many in South Africa have come out in support of their new superstar. (The apparent contradictions in South Africans' behavior on gender and sexuality have been noted including their early denial of the AIDS crisis and its effect on women and the problem of "corrective rape" against lesbians.) Words such as hermaphrodite and normal are being thrown around rather problematically. It is so very unfortunate that the issue of intersex is so misunderstood (Oprah did very little to shed light on it when she tried to address it a few years ago) and that Semenya...

What was so great about Caster Semenya's response at the World Championships to the controversy over her gender presentation was that she did not change a thing--and she won the gold medal. She was completely unapologetic about not meeting the standards of femininity set by all around her. Something changed. Perhaps as the weeks have gone by she became more aware of the severity of the controversy. A South African coach (not her personal one) resigned because he was part of keeping Semenya somewhat in the dark about the nature of the testing--he initially told her she was being tested for doping. Other high-ups in the South Africa have come out publicly condemning the tests. Perhaps she realized the ripple effects of this situation and felt the need to quell criticisms. Because this is what her latest response is. I don't usually publish pics from other sites but this one seemed important. The blogger at the above link does a good job parsing out the situation and has a simila...

Just doing some post-weekend catching up on stories. Dr. Alice Dreger wrote a very good piece in the NYT about the biology of sex--inspired, of course, by the story of Caster Semenya. A 74-year old woman received a gold medal in judo--50 years after winning the YMCA competition. Rusty Kanokogi, who was legitimately part of a judo team when she was in her 20s and took the position of an injured teammate, was disqualified after she won the competition when officials discovered she was a woman. Apparently in her gear she appeared somewhat androgynous. The outrage she felt at being stripped of her gold medal fueled her activism on behalf of women's judo. Netball is coming to the United States! What is netball, you ask? Well it is one of the most popular women's sports in the world. And it is going to be played at the Staples Center September 11. It will be an exhibition game prior to the Sparks last regular season home game. Here is a description of the sport: Netball is similar to...