South African Runner Can Keep Her Privacy, And Her Gold Medal, Too

Poor Caster Semenya. The 18-year-old made international headlines earlier this year as much for her speculated genetic makeup as for her running prowess, but now the South African will get some much-deserved privacy after the South African sports ministry announced Thursday that the results of her gender tests, initially expected to be released Friday, will be kept confidential.

What's more, the ministry also confirmed in a statement that the International Association of Athletics Federations will allow Semenya to keep the gold medal and the prize money she got after winning the 800-meter at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin this past August.

"Whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor," the sports ministry said, according to The Associated Press. "As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things."

After the win, questions about her gender reached an international fever pitch, which just seemed so incredibly humiliating to the young athlete. I typically don't have such a strong reactions to news stories, but if this person was indeed born with male and female sex organs, as was reported in the Australian press in September, what business is it of ours? What's more, it's certainly not her fault, as has been intimated. If a genetic mutation makes her run faster, I say more power to her. It sure beats steroids.

If you think talk of Semenya's sex was big news here, it was nothing compared to the press in her home county, which fiercely criticized anyone who threatened Semenya's right to privacy.

Cheers to the people of South Africa for protecting one of their own, no matter who she — or possibly he — might be.

Photo courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen via Wikimedia Commons.