Semenya's Thumbs Up Leaves Only One Winner

Caster Semenya will get to keep her 800m World Championship Medal, and her prize money, but we might never know whether she's really a woman.

It's been three months since Semenya blitzed the field to claim the 800m world championship.

But questions were immediately raised about whether she was in fact a woman, based largely on her muscular physique and drastic improvement in the months leading up to the world championships in Berlin.

She slashed nearly ten seconds off her 800m time in just eight months, and 25 seconds off her 1500m time in just over a year. Extraordinary in anybody's book.

Three months worth of speculation and tests still has people second-guessing her gender - including the South African Sports Minister, Makhenkesi Stofile.

"We now are in agreement that he ... er, she will retain her gold medal," he said. Oops.

Semenya will also get to keep her title as world champion, and the $60,000 in prize money.

But the $64,000 question remains - we still don't know whether she'll be allowed to compete as a woman in subsequent meets, or the results of her gender tests.

"We have also agreed with the IAAF that what ever scientific tests that were conducted legally within the regulations of the IAAF will be treated as confidential. It's a matter between the patient and the doctor," Stofile said.

18-year-old Semenya, a student at the University of Pretoria hasn't commented on the latest announcements.

But her coach says she'll keep competing as a woman.

Stofile says everyone agreed that Semenya had not intended to dupe authorities.

"All of us agreed that from the side of Semenya nothing wrong was done from her side. She did not cheat, she didn't willingly cheat," he said.

Perhaps not, but never has the question of an athlete's gender raised such intense debate.

It was obvious world sport had no idea how to deal with an athlete who may have both male and female characteristics.

And with Semenya's results kept out of the public eye, it's still unclear where the IAAF draws the line on a female athlete being ineligible to compete as a woman.

So from three months of speculation, there's only one winner - the young woman who gets to keep her medal.