Hmmm. I don't know about those hips and bust. I do know she's got the build that could whup the crap out of me in a fight.
Gender-verification has been around since the 60's, when the Irina and Tamara Press (pictured above) were dominating the Olympics in Hurdles/Pentathalon (Irina, on the left) and Shot-Putting (Tamara, on the right). It was the Cold War, and we didn't like those Russkies winning all them there medals..
In defense of the West, it has to be said that as soon as gender-testing was initiated at the Olympics, the Press sisters retired. The full story will never be known outside of Russia. Were they men deliberately ...um... modified? Were they hermaphrodites? Was it a natural genetic mix-up (which does happen, and does give inherent gender-based advantages to the athlete)? Or were the Russians and other Eastern European countries just decades ahead of the West in understanding what massive amounts of steroids can do for one's track-&-field performance?
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The Cold War is over, the Russians are no longer our mortal enemies, and I kinda have sympathy for the Press sisters. According to Wikipedia, Irina passed away a couple years ago, and Tamara became a civil engineer, wrote numerous books, and still holds an honorary office in Russian sports.
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We shall see how the testing turns out for Caster, but here's hoping she passes. One gets the feeling this isn't a case of deliberate cheating by South Africa. So if it is natural-occurring, it will be something Caster has no control over, and of course, quite embarrassing. There will be a zillion jokes, and the bottom line is - it's not the sort of thing I'd want to have happen to me.
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This was just on the news here and Jason and I spent the last 20 mins talking about it. I just feel bad for the girl. This should have all been done months ago. If there were questions about her sex, it didn't need to wait until after she won the world championship (or whatever it was) to put her in the spotlight. I hope they determine she's female. And that they give her a big apology afterwards.
when i left work at 4:00 yesterday, i was intending to write a snarky post about this. but the more i thought about it, the less funny it became.
I would be completely mortified it it were me. Now, if it turns out she's really a guy and was hiding, the way it's been a couple times in the past, I won't feel sorry for her anymore, but right now I do.
the consensus seems to be that it's very unlikely that this is a guy hiding.
otoh, she's improved her 800-meter time by something like 8 seconds over the past year. that would be like a pitcher adding 15 mph to his fastball all of a sudden. rather suspicious.
Well I don't actually know what either of those statistics means - you'd have to give it to me in swimming terms, haha! - but I'm all for constant drug testing and keeping blood on file for years for new tests.
good point re keeping the samples on file.
i don't want to sound un-American, but i really think Lance Armstrong was juiced, and is juiced again. the competition isn't between the cyclists, it's between their chemists and the drug-detecting agency.
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