By Marlowe Hood (AFP) – 6 hours ago
PARIS — The gender test ordered up for the South African wunderkind who grabbed 800-metre gold this week could reveal any of several genetic disorders resulting in a physically ambiguous sexual identity, experts say.
Hormones and surgery, in other words, are not the only things that can bend gender to boost female performance by shape-shifting bodies and building muscle mass.
But taking steroids or hiding a sex-change is cheating.
Being born with unusual chromosomes is not, which raises the uncomfortable possibility that an athlete could be stripped of a gold medal because of her -- or his -- genes.
Whether this is what lies in store for 18-year-old Caster Semenya, who demolished the competition at the athletics world championships in Berlin, is still unknown.
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