Indian athlete fails gender test
Indian athlete fails gender test
A top Indian woman athlete who won a silver medal at a recent regional championship has failed a gender test, officials say.
Santhi Soundararajan, who took the silver in the women's 800m race at the Asian Games in Doha, has been stripped of her medal, reports say.
Soundararajan, 25, was declared the best athlete at an Indian championship in the capital, Delhi, this year.
In 1999, a woman in an Indian state football team failed a gender test.
Not mandatory
"Santhi was subjected to a gender test in Doha and we have received the report which says she failed the test," said Manmohan Singh, chairman of the Indian Olympic Association's Medical Commission.
Soundararajan is refusing to comment. "I was not informed about the test results and I don't know much on that. I do not want to talk about it," she told journalists.
The test is not mandatory, but is carried out if officials want it or a rival team protests, reports say.
KP Mohan, a sports journalist, said athletes were usually examined by a team of doctors, including a gynaecologist, endocrinologist and psychologist, and put through physical and clinical examinations during a gender test.
The test was carried out soon after Soundararajan came second in the women's 800m race on 9 December.
Reports say the athlete cleared the gender test at the Asian track and field championship in South Korea last year where she won the silver medal in the 800m.
It is not clear how she failed the test at the Asian Games in Doha.
This is the second controversy to hit Indian athletes within a month - female shot putter Seema Antil was withdrawn from the Asian Games after she failed a pre-competition dope test.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6188775.stm
Published: 2006/12/18 12:42:22 GMT
Mostly because of ANABOLIC STERIOD...or whatever..Drug that the athelets take to increase muscle...As the muscle increase so also other Male charecteristics like facial hair etc.
Poverty is all mentioned as a excuse...if she was so undernurished then she would not be able to run ...so that therory is bullshhiit.
does it mean that she is a eunuch, is it the same thing?
so she has to have a surgery, but to treat what....remove the male or female.
happy heart
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She is a hermaphrodite - i.e. has two genders. That's obvious.
its really sad...but it doesnt make sense to me.
she passed the test once and this time she didnt.
yesterday there was an article stating it could have something to do with nutrition deficiency because she belonged to a very poor family.
what do they mean by saying gender test. is she a man?
does she have male hormones naturally in the body?
they even mentioned she should undergo some sort of surgery followed by hormone therapy for two years before testing again to compete.what is this surgery?
happy heart
drive safe because someone is waiting for you at home