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[–]luckystar 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I'm confused -- is Caster Semenya biologically male or female? I thought their condition made them technically female but effectively male. Does anyone know the name of the condition?

[–]jelliknight 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's a known fact that Caster is XY (these rules do not apply to any XX woman) and has very high levels of testosterone, i.e. functioning testes. His wife has also given birth to their child. No mention of a sperm donor and it is possible for males with many intersex conditions to be fertile.

[–]MarkTwainiac 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Just to clarify: Semenya can only be said to have "very high levels of testosterone" if it's presumed Semenya is a female, which Semenya is not.

Semenya has normal-high testosterone levels for the sex category to which Semenya belongs, which is male.

The position of IAAF/WA, which now has been upheld by both the CAS and the highest court in Switzerland, is that Semenya is a robustly healthy biological male athlete who differs from other robustly healthy male athletes only in the appearance of the external genitals.