What's in a Name?

While Usain Bolt takes gold with a new world record at the 2009 T&F World Championships in Berlin, (that's five world records in five major finals so far,) Caster Semenya of South Africa rivals his publicity by taking gold in the 800 amid rumors of her being not-entirely female. The best coverage of this controversy, as well as extensive analysis of the event, itself, can be found on The Science of Sport.

Now, the guys from The Science of Sport are doing a great job with their coverage, and they are objective and professional, as always. With their pursuit of scientific understanding of the mechanics of athletic performance to their experience dealing with the politics of the South African world of athletics, perhaps no one can rival their expertise on the issue. They are spot-on in their assertion that the ASA (Athletics South Africa) are to blame for not having tested her before allowing her to compete in the World Championships. However, they may have overlooked something really obvious.

The crux of the issue is that there are rumors (and only rumors) surrounding the South African runner about her possessing secondary male characteristics, i.e. hermaphroditism. Now, the question obviously isn't whether she's male or female - that can be discerned easily enough with the Crocodile Dundee crotch-check method. The question is what makes male athletic physiology superior to female athletic physiology, which is very tricky, and if she possesses enough of these male qualities to render it unfair to compete with female athletes. Now, she does look less feminine compared to the other women she is running against, but she is nowhere near the size, muscularity or speed of elite male runners.

Since the ASA has allowed her to compete, her performances will be clouded by controversy until adequate testing can be done, and then she may have her medal taken away (with fourth place receiving bronze, third receiving silver, etc.) The only argument to defend ASA is that the rumors alone weren't enough to instigate thorough testing. And to that, I say, really? With a name like Caster? I'm not sure if Caster is a popular girl's name in South Africa, but in the world arena, it's just not going to fly. And you don't EVER name your girl Caster if your last name is Semenya.

Caster Semenya. There's a transvestite porn name for you. It's worse than Beau Breedlove. She should really go by Cassie, or even Suzy or Venus. There's just no way that the IAAF is going to let a female athlete with a name like Caster Semenya take a medal without questioning it. And so, even if Caster Semenya eventually proves to be adequately female, the response to her performance, in the meantime, is going to be as vicious as this scene from Austin Powers.