I am still shocked about how Mr. Choene, the President of Athletics South Africa (ASA) handled the Caster Semenya debacle and am one of those calling for his resignation asap.
Mr Choene doesn’t seem to understand the context of gender testing as it relate to elite athletes and his answers were far too amateurish. It is quite clear (even by doing a Google search) that when it comes to highly competitive sport (where there’s millions to be made), gender is a lot more complex that simply pulling down a pair of panties.
It also came out during the radio show on SAFM that Caster’s gender has been questioned throughout her running career (as early as high school) and even Limpopo Athletics consulted ASA about her case. For Mr Choene and his team at ASA to have not pre-empted this and put a coherent response on the matter is simply unacceptable. Caster should have been tested (away from the media glare) and duly counselled long before the Berlin event. ASA had known for a while that she would stand a chance of a podium finish at Berlin because she had broken a few records (e.g. Zola Budd’s SA juniors record, among others) and was on her way to the highest league of athletes.
I wish Caster all the best and hope she will pull through this traumatic experience. I hope ASA learn a lot from this spectacular PR disaster of their making.
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