South Africans rally for runner in gender debate

JOHANNESBURG – Mobbed by a singing, dancing and horn-blowing crowd of supporters at Johannesburg's airport, South African runner Caster Semenya looked overwhelmed and a little terrified.

The gold-medal-winning teenager at the center of an international controversy over her gender cried "Mama! Mama!" and reached out for her mother as police tried to clear a path through the throngs at the welcoming ceremony in the arrival area.

South Africans rallied around their 800-meter world champion as she returned home Tuesday from Berlin, and even President Jacob Zuma vowed that he would not permit her gold medal to be taken away, no matter what gender tests say.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation has initiated the tests on Semenya, who stunned the world championships last week by her decisive win but whose muscular build and deep voice sparked questions about whether she is a woman.

There was no doubt among the thousands of supporters who greeted the 18-year-old at the airport with posters reading: "Caster You Go Girl!" "Our First Lady of Sport," and "Caster You Beaut."

The crowd cheered wildly as she tentatively made her way onto a small stage in a parking lot, but slowly she relaxed, gave a thumbs-up and, breaking into a broad grin, said: "Hi, everybody!"

Clad in the team's yellow and green team tracksuit with her gold medal dangling from her neck, Semenya even tried a few dance moves.

"She has lifted our hearts," said Semenya's mother, Dorcus, wearing a traditional headdress. "We feel powerful because of her."

She then attended a parade through the capital Pretoria and met with Zuma, displaying the remarkable poise that helped her easily win the 800 hours after world track officials went public with her gender tests.

When asked what he would do if the IAAF revoked the medal, Zuma said: "They're not going to remove the gold medal. She won it. So that question does not arise."

The president advised Semenya: "Continue to walk tall."

"We are proud of you. We love you. These events should not distract us from celebrating your outstanding achievement on the track."

Semenya strode confidently to the podium and for the first time described the race that won her the gold and the world's attention.

She said that before the 800-meter final, her coach told her that in the last 200 meters, "'Kill them.' I did what he said, but I took a lead in the last 400. I celebrated the last 200.

"It was great," she said as her teammates stood to applaud.

Semenya, who grew up in deep poverty in South Africa's rural hinterland, seemed shy and tomboyish but completely at ease with herself.

It was only during a news conference after her arrival — when politicians and sports officials went on a tirade against the IAAF, the media and the West in general — that Semenya seemed to wish she was elsewhere. Semenya never spoke at the news conference and showed little emotion as politicians and sports officials spoke of the humiliation she has suffered.

Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa, said Semenya was too traumatized to speak at the news conference. "She's only 18. I'm traumatized myself," he said.

At one point, her grandmother, in the traditional wide-skirted outfit of their Pedi tribe, pushed through the thicket of TV cameras to ululate praise. That drew a smile from Semenya.

A full-throated laugh from Semenya came at a question about whether she had received hormone injections from Ekkart Arbeit, head coach of the South African team. Arbeit was accused of steroid abuse when he coached in East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. Chuene said Arbeit had had no direct contact with Semenya.

The Daily Telegraph in London reported that tests done before the world championships indicated that Semenya had three times the normal female level of testosterone in her body, although that does not necessarily mean she was doping. Chuene refused to comment on the report.

"I stand firm. Yes, indeed, she's a girl," Chuene said. "We are not going to allow Europeans to describe and define our children."

Also at Semenya's side was Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, who hit out at the athlete's detractors.

"To the world out there, who conducted those pseudo-tests to test our gender, they can stuff their insult," she said. "This is our little girl, and nobody is going to perform any tests on her. We have defeated difficult situations in the history of this country. Don't touch us."

South Africans of all races have rallied behind Semenya and many say the allegations against her are motivated by envy and show racial discrimination against Africans.

"There are those that are just jealous. She must ignore them," said Paisley Sebata, a former schoolmate of Semenya who made a three-hour journey to the airport. "She has showed that South Africa has talent."

Zuma said South Africa's minister of sport and recreation has written to the IAAF to express "our disappointment and the manner in which the body has dealt with the matter," he said.

"It is one thing to seek to ascertain whether or not an athlete has an unfair advantage over others, but it is another to publicly humiliate an honest professional and competent athlete."

The IAAF, track and field's governing body, will decide Semenya's case according to whether her "conditions ... accord no advantage over other females" after consulting a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, an internal medicine specialist and a gender expert. The test takes weeks to complete.
source. news.yahoo.com

S.Williams No. 2 to Safina in US Open seedings

Defending champion Serena Williams was seeded No. 2 for the U.S. Open on Tuesday, behind Dinara Safina, because the tournament stuck to its policy of strictly following the rankings.

Roger Federer was seeded No. 1 for the fifth time at the year's last Grand Slam tournament. He is ranked No. 1 and has won the U.S. Open five years in a row.

Safina is No. 1 in the WTA computer, which calculates rankings based on performances across tournaments over the preceding 52 weeks. The younger sister of former men's No. 1 Marat Safin is still seeking her first Grand Slam title. She is 0-3 in major finals, including a loss to Williams at the Australian Open in January.

Williams has won three of the past four Grand Slam singles championships and 11 overall, the most among active women. She will be seeking her fourth U.S. Open title.

Tournament director Jim Curley said the U.S. Tennis Association did discuss the possibility of moving Williams ahead of Safina.

"The U.S. Open has the prerogative of altering its seedings; it's something we have not availed ourselves of in quite some time," Curley said in a telephone interview. "We certainly spoke about it, but it never got to the point where we were seriously intending to not follow the rankings."

Since 1997, the USTA has matched its seedings to the ATP and WTA rankings.

"The players do earn their rankings over a 12-mointh period, both at Grand Slams and non-Grand Slam events. At the end of the day, whether you're seeded No. 1 or seeded No. 2 at the U.S. Open, it really doesn't matter. You're either at the top of the draw or the bottom of the draw, and the rest of the draw is determined by a coin toss," Curley said. "From a competition perspective, there really isn't any difference being seeded 1 or 2."

The draw will be announced Thursday, and the tournament begins Monday.

After the top two women, two-time U.S. Open champion Venus Williams is No. 3, followed by Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva and 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic.

Maria Sharapova is No. 29 — barely earning one of the 32 seedings after rising from No. 49 in the rankings last week. She won the 2006 U.S. Open for one of her three major titles but missed the tournament last year because of a right shoulder injury. The Russian had surgery in October and a long absence from the tour dropped her ranking.

Sharapova is among a dozen Grand Slam singles champions seeded at this year's U.S. Open. One major champion in the field but not seeded is 2005 U.S. Open winner Kim Clijsters, who recently came out of retirement and received a wild card from the USTA.

"This year was very interesting because not only did you have the Dinara-Serena situation but you also had ... Maria Sharapova, a former champion here, who might have been unseeded, and then you also had Kim Clijsters, who only has two tournaments on the computer and therefore doesn't even have a ranking," Curley said. "We looked at those two, as well, and still ultimately decided to continue to follow the rankings."

After Federer in the men's seedings are 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray, six-time major champion Rafael Nadal, 2007 U.S. Open runner-up Novak Djokovic and 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick.
source. news.yahoo.com