Who’s gaining an unfair advantage?

Certain powerful factions within the athletics community think Caster Semenya has an unfair advantage. She is unquestionably a woman; no one is arguing with that, but she has much higher than normal levels of testosterone circulating in her bloodstream, which has resulted in her developing a body shape more like that of a man than a woman. So at that level she does have an advantage over women with more normal testosterone levels, but if she does, it is only an advantage nature has given her.

Did Usain Bolt have an unfair advantage over the men he competed against, owing to his very long legs, the abundance of fast-twitch fibres in his muscles and his steely determination to win? No, theses were the gifts God gave him and my goodness didn’t he exploit them to their fullest. Do those lanky beanpoles of athletes who seem to be suited to jumping high have an unfair advantage over more normally proportioned athletes? Come to that, what about all those incredibly tall basketball players who have benefited from a natural excess of Human Growth Hormone? Step aside Shaquille O’Neill, you 7 foot tall freak- the IAAF reckons you’re cheating.

Pelagius says: leave Semenya alone! She can’t help the way her body is made, and who can blame her for making the most of her astonishing gifts. Remember, she didn’t get to the top of her game solely on her hormonal status. She has trained long and hard, as any athlete must who wishes to excell at the highest level. And while it might be annoying for the IAAF idiots to see her looking more like a man than a woman, Pelagius still says: get over yourselves.