Caster Semenya, as most will know, is the runner who recently won a gold medal in the women’s 800 meter race in the world championships.  She was given her medal, but many are unhappy….because they think she’s a man?

Sort of.

Despite the assurances of Semenya and her family that she is a woman, she will undergo gender testing.  Clearly, even though nobody’s actually saying it, Semenya must have some male characteristics even outside her appearance: we’re guessing ambiguous genitalia, or this wouldn’t be an issue, right?  Some conditions that could cause male characteristics such as an overabundance of testosterone are genetic or chromosomal, such as being an XXY male (many are raised as women.)

Interestingly, this has happened at least twice before in the world of track, when women have failed the chromosomal test.  A host of disorders and characteristics, which the New York Times runs down here, could account for Semenya’s male characteristics.  The Bantu people of South Africa, where Semenya is from (though nobody is saying she is of Bantu extraction), are often hermaphroditic–genetically female, but with both ovaries and testes.

Of course, this is where it gets philosophically messy…

Of course, gender isn’t merely physical: there are emotional and social constructs of gender that matter hugely.  Whether Semenya is genetically male or not, clearly she has been raised and socialized as a female, and perhaps even more importantly, considers herself a female.  None of the gender dysmorphia that those who often choose to switch genders appears to be present.

What if it were?  Or, what if an athlete who competed on a high level wished to change genders?  It hasn’t happened yet, but as transgendered people enter mainstream consciousness more and become more common, it probably will at some point.

Men’s and women’s sports are split because of the inherent physical differences between men and women.  But what about mental differences?  Is it chromosomes or physical characteristics that are most important?  A runner who considers herself a female, yet has a Y chromosome, would not necessarily be allowed to represent her country in the Olympics, and a female who transgenders to male would be unable to run with his peers.

Gender, certainly, is social as well as physical, and in one way or another this is something that sports, along with the rest of society, is going to have to face: whether Semenya is a man or a woman, even after chromosomal testing,  is not nearly as straightforward as people may think.