When sports talk goes from X's and O's to X's and Y's -- chromosomes -- the level of expertise falls off dramatically. Amid the furor of some screeching headlines ("She is a He!"), competitors' accusations and track officials' confirmation that they will subject women's world 800-meter champion Caster Semenya of South Africa to gender verification tests, most observers appear to be in over their heads regarding the complexities of sexual identity.
Almost everything about the issue is fuzzy: Where to draw the biological line between male and female, exactly what standard is used by the track authorities in deeming a female ineligible to compete as a woman, precisely what tests answer such questions. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has asked for reports that will take weeks to review -- from a gynecologist, an endocrinologist, a psychologist, a specialist in internal medicine and a gender expert.
