Defining a Woman on the Field

The world track and field governing body has the daunting task of discussing the definition of a female athlete as the controversy continues to surround South African runner Caster Semenya’s gender tests. The IAAF announced that it will meet next week to begin defining a female athlete, a task that might take the organization’s medical experts up to a year to complete. "We are obliged to react. It would have been better if we had been prepared to, but we were not prepared,” said IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss of Semenya’s 800-meter win in the world championships at Berlin this summer. Semenya’s gender test results will be released in November of this year.