Interesting how these claims can be made when the IAAF hasn't actually released the contest of the tests as they have to be looked at by experts. The Aussie papers are either making shit up, or have a lot of money to spend to get people to leak information (they broke the story on Prince Harry serving in Afghan too).
I love how South Africa is threatening to start world war three if (s)he is banned from competing in athletics. I think that'll be the shortest war in the world. Linky
But I can see that statement getting the whole country getting banned from entering any sporting events.
It is something Africa as a nation always does. Something goes wrong in any country and the blame "the whites/west" because it is our fault they don't follow the rules.
I think it was meant as a figure of speech - if he has said "all hell will break loose" would you be expecting a brimstone shower and pitchfork-poking extravaganza?
Yeah! Damn them for not following all our rules, those pesky African nationals.
Threatening violence to try and prevent the IAAF form applying the rules for their own game is a stupid idea in general.
If you're not going to play by the rules of the game, go play something else, threatening to attack the rule keepers will just get you banned anyway.
I am aware of this, but up and down the continent you get the same reaction from a country that ****ed up "it is the West's fault that I spent their aide money on gold glasses and guns, so blame them" so you might as well consider it a nation.
If this allegations are real, which IMO are more then sure of(the IAAF are probably just stalling to better organize themselves for the sock wave), I would think of nothing less then banning South Africa for a defined amount of time because let's be frank, they knew about this, yet they shamelessly denied the accusations and threatened the IAAF, not to mention that sooner or later, they will pull out the racism card (if they didn't already pulled it out).
You can't say they didn't knew because she's almost got a beard and a voice that surely is not feminine. If that alone isn't enough to make you suspicious enough to do tests, then I don't know what will. Nor can you say that they didn't had the technology to test her gender, because even if that may be, this is an international competition. If you can't be on the same level as the other competitors, then IMO you shouldn't be there in the first place.
The record and the medal should be taken away from Caster because ,although technically she didn't cheated, SA did so by letting her represent them.
What violence? What are you on about man? Did you even read the article you linked to further than just the one phrase you took literally? The person who uttered this which has you waving a scolding finger towards the south is their sports minister who went on to explain that they'll take the contest to the highest legal level.
I took some time evaluating the structure of the above sentence and trying to surmise whether there was some actual argumentative logic hidden somewhere in there together with some (probably very frightened by now) sense or reason. Sadly, it's devoid of such.
Banding around the claims of starting WWIII isn't something you'd say in relation to a sporting event (ever if you're a sane nation) if all you're talking about is taking legal action.
For convenience sake I was saying that Africa is just a nation as when one considers how each country operates they all follow the same rule book. They are happy to enjoy the gravy train that the West provides them with, but once they are called on anything it is the West's fault.
In our eagerness to improve Africa we give them a lot of free rides (admittedly we did make a mess during the salve trade/Empire building days) so they try and follow "civilised" society into the 21st century and all we've done is ruin the "nation". So the best thing to do would be to just ignore them, don't invite them round for tea, pull out all peace keeping missions and stop giving them money.
Lets take almost a random the thorn in Blighties side, Zimbabwe, when we left them to it, they were the most prosperous country in Africa, now it is one of the least. Every chance Mugabe gets, he'll blame some issue on the British/Whites/West (in that order), yet he won't mention that in the last 12months we've (British tax payers) given them 1bn GBP to help fix the country. Money that never filters down to the general population, but helps Mugabe (and his friends) live the life of luxury he has grown used to, such as gold framed glasses.
But I digress, if you don't want to play by the rules, don't cry foul when you're caught out and told you can't play any more.
The number of Daily Mail readers active in this thread proccludes any benefit that might occur from attempting a reasoned discussion around them.
To the point, Reading what some of you fascists have written here, I am left wondering why I ever attempted doing stuff for the community in the first place.
I give up on reasoned argument. Now we've wheeled the English language back over 10 years and dusted off hermaphrodite just for added old guard untollerance value, Africa is now a country and they're all the same, and apparently anything the SA Sports Minister says will be taken literally, which is something of a problem given how metaphorically intelligent people use English.
Ok, I don't consider myself to be living in a cave, but when exactly did the word Hermaphrodite become offensive? Except maybe in the secluded world of those people whom are ??
I can't say, I've ever seen any discussion over the use of the term in any mainstream forum. Which group of people have declared it to be perjorative exactly?
As for the issue in hand. Should the "leak" turn out to be substantiated, I for one think that the SA sporting federation could find themself in a lot of trouble. I find it very difficult to believe that someone can reach the age of 18 and truely believe they are a biologically normal female if clearly they are incapable of menstuation and there can be no doubt that they have gone through puberty.
I strongly suspect that both the athelete themself, their coach and the SA sporting body knew there was something "special" going on here.