Caster Semenya is a hermaphrodite
Published:Thursday | September 10, 2009 | 6:18 PM
World champion 800 metre runner, Caster Semenya, is a hermaphrodite with no womb or ovaries, an Australian newspaper has claimed.
Quoting a source close to the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF, the paper says Semenya had internal testes, male sexual organs which produce testosterone and which in turn produces muscle bulk, body hair and a deep voice.
The 18-year-old won gold with a sensational final-lap sprint to streak away from the competition in Berlin last month.
The Australian paper says, the IAAF is expected to disqualify Semenya from future events and advise an operation because the condition carries grave health risks.
The IAAF received Semenya\'s gender test results today. However, athletics chiefs said they would not be revealed until they had a chance to speak with Semenya.
The gender-test results could see her stripped of the gold medal she won last month in Berlin, although the IAAF claimed recovering the medal would prove difficult.
Fans in South Africa have strongly defended the runner amid claims by doubters that she won her medal unfairly because she was really a man.