As Usain Bolt continues to streak across the World Athletics Championships in Berlin like a bolt of lightning, it is Caster Semenya's gender test imbroglio that is now in the spotlight. The South African athlete who won the women's 800m at the Championships has been asked to take a gender verification test.

Suspicions were raised after Semenya posted the phenomenal timing. Reports suggested that her overly muscular build may have provoked authorities to take a test. Semenya, one read, was so upset that she had to be persuaded to go up to the podium to receive her medal. The report reminded one of what a psychologist had once said: sexual humiliation seems to be the hardest to forget. To be fair to the international athletics authorities, they have admitted that the athlete may not know that she (in this case, Semenya) may have a chromosomal abnormality that may give her an unfair advantage in women's only events. Yet, the fact that one could have one's gender questioned, that too on the world stage, is enough to send one into a spiral of depression and destroy confidence.