By DONNA BRYSON, Associated Press Writer Donna Bryson, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 24 mins ago
FAIRLIE, South Africa In the poor, rural village where South African runner Caster Semenya grew up, relatives on Thursday brushed off questions about her deep voice and muscular build that have prompted the world governing body for track and field to seek gender tests.
"That's how God made her," said her cousin, Evelyn Sekgala, who recalls Semenya being teased about her boyish looks while growing up in Fairlie, a village at the end of a dirt road where the biggest traffic jam on Thursday was a herd of goats.
The 18-year-old runner's father, Jacob, told the Sowetan newspaper: "She is my little girl. ... I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times."
A teacher first got Semenya interested in running, her cousin said in this village some 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Johannesburg. The family was pleased she took up an interest in sports, and not in drinking and partying like other teenagers. Her grandmother would give her money to enter races.
South Africa team manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said Semenya was thrilled about winning Wednesday's 800-meter world title.
"She said to me she doesn't see what the big deal is all about," Mlangeni-Tsholetsane said. "She believes it is God-given talent and she will exercise it."
About three weeks ago, the IAAF asked the South African athletics federation to conduct the gender test after Semenya burst onto the scene by posting a world leading time of 1 minute, 56.72 seconds at the African junior championships in Bambous, Mauritius.
The test, which takes weeks to complete, requires a physical medical evaluation, and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and an expert on gender.
Gideon Sam, the president of South Africa's Olympic governing body, congratulated Semenya on a "truly remarkable achievement."
"We condemn the way she was linked with such media speculation and allegation, especially on a day she ran in the final of her first major world event," Sam said. "It's the biggest day of her life."
South Africa's governing party, the African National Congress, also defended Semenya, calling on South Africans to "rally behind our golden girl."
"We condemn the motives of those who have made it their business to question her gender due to her physique and running style. Such comments can only serve to portray women as being weak," the party said in a statement. "Caster is not the only woman athlete with a masculine build."
In an interview with South Africa's Beeld newspaper, Semenya's former headmaster said he didn't realize she was a girl because she wore pants instead of a skirt to school.
"She was always rough and played with the boys. She liked soccer and she wore pants to school. She never wore a dress. It was only in grade 11 that I realized she's a girl," Eric Modiba, head of the Nthema Secondary School, told the newspaper.
Morris Gilbert, a media consultant for TuksSport, the University of Pretoria's sports department, said the issue of Semenya's gender has not been raised since she began attending the school, where she is a the freshman studying sports science.
"We are all very proud of her and of what she's achieved," Gilbert said. "The university stands behind her all the way."
He attributed her recent success to hard work and rigorous training.
"She trains a lot," Gilbert said. "If you go to the athletics track, you're sure to find her there. I don't think she had really good training before she came to the university. She's from a very poor area."
Semenya's cousin says no one in the area has gotten as far as the teen running sensation. At 50, Sekgala has never been farther than Pretoria, South Africa's capital, which is near Johannesburg.
Sekgala says it's her dream that Semenya will one day take the whole family overseas to watch her run.
"We'd be very happy if that would happen. I wish her well, God should take care of her, and she should go from strength to strength with her talent."
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Associated Press Writer Anita Powell in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
AFP South Africa's Caster Semenya celebrates winning the women's 800m race at the 2009 IAAF Athletics
by Justine Gerardy Justine Gerardy Thu Aug 20, 10:12 am ET
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) South Africa declared new 800-metre world champion Caster Semenya a "golden girl" Thursday, as the nation rallied around her family to fend off doubts that she is a woman.
Front pages in every major newspaper pictured a triumphant Semenya who powered to a 1min 55.45sec win -- the world's best this year -- shortly after the athletics governing body announced her gender was to be verified.
"She is my little girl. I raised her and I have never doubted her gender. She is a woman and I can repeat that a million times," father Jacob Semenya told the popular tabloid Sowetan which dubbed the champion "Our Golden Girl".
"For the first time South Africans have someone to be proud of and detractors are already shouting wolf. It is unfair. I wish they would leave my daughter alone."
The South African government and ruling African National Congress (ANC) stepped into the furore, with the party condemning the speculation as serving to portray woman as weak and calling Semenya a role model for young athletes.
"We call on all South Africans to rally behind our golden girl and shrug off negative and unwarranted questions about her gender," the ANC said.
Semenya's 80-year-old grandmother Maphuthi Sekgala told The Times that the first year sports science student had long been teased about her boyish looks and for being the only girl in her local soccer team.
"(The controversy) doesn't bother me that much because I know she's a woman -- I raised her myself," she said in her rural village in northern Limpopo province.
"She called me after (the heats) and told me that they think she's a man. What can I do when they call her a man, when she's really not a man? It is God who made her look that way."
Among several angry reactions from leftist groups and heated online and radio debate, the Young Communist League called the gender probe chauvinistic, saying it fed into stereotypes of how woman should look and smacked of racism.
"We see this as an insult to Semenya in particular and African women (even in the Diaspora) in general," it said.
The South African Football Players Union questioned why the IAAF had singled out Semenya.
"It shows that these imperialist countries can't afford to accept the talent that Africa as a continent has," it said.
Semenya was a total unknown a few weeks ago -- with her birthplace described as remote and rural. The teenager lived with her grandmother while at high school, growing up without electricity or running water.
Semenya's former high school head told the Afrikaans broadsheet Beeld the top runner had played with boys, enjoyed soccer and wore long trousers to school.
"I first realised that she was a girl in Grade 11," he said, explaining how Semenya had moved to stand with a girls team after he had divided the boys and girls for a short running race.
The runner's proud mother Dorcas, said to have a striking resemblance to her daughter, told The Star that she has always been a "disciplined, kind and patient child...very hardworking and serious in what she wanted to become".
The runner's coach Michael Seme laughed off the gender allegations, saying the athlete fielded constant questions about whether she was a boy from younger athletes when training.
"Then she has to explain that she can't help the fact that her voice is so gruff and that she really is a girl. The remarkable thing is that Caster remains completely calm and never loses her dignity when she is questioned about her gender," Seme told Beeld.
Semenya had been "crudely humiliated" a few times and the closest Seme said he had seen her to anger was earlier this year when some people wanted her barred from using the ladies restroom.
"Then Caster said: 'Do you want me to pull down my pants that you can see?' Those same people came to her later and said they were extremely sorry."
