This case calls our concepts/categories into question. Are the categories male and female exhaustive (i.e., is there a third category)? Are they mutually exclusive (i.e., can someone be both)?
Addendum: Here is a New York Times story about the case. Some of the runner's competitors are upset that they must compete against him/her:
“These kind of people should not run with us,” Elisa Cusma of Italy, who finished sixth, said in a postrace interview with Italian journalists. “For me, she’s not a woman. She’s a man.”
Mariya Savinova, who was fifth, told Russian journalists that she did not believe Semenya would be able to pass a test. “Just look at her,” Savinova said.
What do you think? How many of you think there should no separate competitions for males and females? If there were no separate competitions, males would dominate. I have run marathons in which only one woman beat me.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 