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I think that some very valid and challenging points have been made, and am very pleased to see that so many people feel strongly enough about the intrusive injustice of this situation to comment. I hope that this translates into action to support any individual that finds themselves in a similar position and active challenge to organisations and individuals who feel that such a response is in any way acceptable or justified. To add my thoughts to the current debate, I wish to take a slightly different view on the situation – namely, why and where has the challenge to Semenya’s gender come from? The challenge to Semenya ‘legitimacy’ was, I believe, raised by her fellow competitors. They appear to be claiming that the only way that they could have been beaten, or the only way that Semenya could have won, is by some physical anomaly. It seems to me that, essentially, those other athletes who were beaten are accusing the victor of ‘cheating’. This is not new in this case – I can recall accusations of the Williams sisters when they first appeared on the tennis scene, and the statement by Lindsey Davenport that playing against Amelie Mauresmo was like ‘playing against a man’. I also wonder if the accusation of ‘cheating’ within women’s sport is also related to expectations within specific sports of what is, or is not, acceptable in terms of ‘female bodily comportment’. For example, such accusations or challenges to legitimacy do not seem to be evident in sports where there are more visibly androgynous women involved – rugby, basketball, football etc. It would be very interesting to compare the media coverage, and fellow competitor responses, to male athletes outperforming expectations: for example, male sprinters such as Usain Bolt. There are, obviously, challenges made in some of these cases based on accusations of drug use – again, an assumption that excellence has been obtained through ‘cheating’. Furthermore, it would be very interesting to see how the similarities and differences in terms of media reportage, other competetors’ views, and ‘testing’ methods between Semenya’s situation and that of ‘blade runner’ Oscar Peistorius (also from South Africa) … Annabelle Willox p.s. if anyone is interested in writing something on the concept of ‘cheating’ in sport, linked to the above, please let me know …