Why was Santhi Soundarajan stripped of her World Athletic Championship medal?
The South African teenager caught up in the gender-test flap bowed her head to receive the gold medal for winning the 800-meter win at the world championships on Thursday, while officials and family came to her defense. Caster Semenya won by a huge margin Wednesday in the face of revelations that the world track body asked her to undergo gender testing. Asked while walking into the medal ceremony how she was feeling, Semenya smiled and said, “Good, man.” Dressed in a yellow and green track suit, Semenya waved to the crowd as she ascended the podium to receive her gold medal. She stood with her hands behind her back and mouthed the words to the South African national anthem. Her dramatic improvement, muscular build and deep voice sparked speculation about her gender. Her father, grandmother and cousin dismissed speculation she is not a woman. The gender test, which takes weeks to complete, requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist,
From Wikipedia: Santhi Soundarajan (also spelled Santhi Soundararajan, born April 1981) is an Indian athlete who competes in the middle distance track events. She was stripped of a silver medal won at the 2006 Asian Games after failing a gender verification test, disputing her eligibility to participate in the women’s competition. Santhi Soundarajan was born in 1981 in the village of Kathakkurichi in Pudukkottai District of Tamil Nadu, India. Soundarajan holds the national record for the women’s 3000 metres steeplechase clocking 10:44.65 seconds. At a national meet in Bangalore in July 2005 she won the 800m, 1,500m and 3000m. She won the silver medal in 800 m at the Asian Championships in Incheon, South Korea in 2005. [edit]Asian Games controversy Soundarajan won a silver medal in the women’s 800m race at the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha, Qatar in December 2006 clocking 2 minutes, 3.16 seconds. However, she underwent a sex test shortly afterwards, and the results indicated that she “d
Because of the current controversy over Caster Semenya, the recent World Athletic Championships gold-medal winner whose sex is under dispute, commentators are reminded of the case Santhi Soundarajan, a middle-distance runner from India. Soundarajan was stripped of her medal over a failed sex verification (Fox) Soundarajan won a silver medal at the 2006 Asia Games, but was stripped of her medal after she failed a verification test designed to confirm she was a woman. Soundarajan later attempted to committ suicide. Some doctors and professionals have criticised the idea of complex gender tests done by sports organizations. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that professor Alex Dreger said, “There isn’t really one simple way to sort out males and females. Sports require that we do, but biology doesn’t care.” Sources: http://www.zimbio.
