Gender-test Semenya is a girl, insist her parents
THE MOTHER of Caster Semanya, the women’s 800m world champion who has been asked to take a gender test, insists her teenage daughter definitely is female.
Semanya, 18, stormed to victory in the final in Berlin on Wednesday just hours after athletics chiefs announced they had asked her to undergo a test.
The South African has been the subject of whispers about her gender since bursting onto the scene earlier this year, and governing body the IAAF decided to intervene after Semenya posted a world leading time at the African junior championships three weeks ago.
The IAAF’s handling of the case has provoked criticism, and her mother Dorcus Semenya is adamant the doubters will be proved wrong.
“I am not even worried because I know who and what my child is. Mokgadi Caster is a girl and no one can change that,” she said.
“If you go to my home village and ask any of my neighbours, they would tell you that Mokgadi is a girl.
“They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl.”
Semenya’s father Jacob added: “She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender.”