Charles Ngetich was a track and cross country runner for Central Connecticut State University. That is, until he ran into coach George Kawecki and his unorthodox training methods:

While at a track team meeting ... Coach Kawecki produced a cup of blood, told [Ngetich] that he was too thin, needed calcium and demanded that [Ngetich] drink it. Because of the undue influence of Coach Kawecki, [Ngetich] believed that he had no option but to drink the blood. He did so in the presence of Kawecki and approximately ten team members," the lawsuit states.

At one point the coach gave the scholarship athlete an entire bottle of blood to drink, the suit states.

OK, a question here. Where did the blood come from? Animal or human? Because if it came in a bottle, as the lawsuit says, I don't think coach was able to buy that at the local XtraMart.

Other allegations in the suit include an incident wherein Kawecki pointed to a puppy and asked Ngetich how many people he could feed with it and an autumn 2007 cookout at Kawecki's house where someone dropped a hot dog on the ground and an unnamed teammate suggested giving it to Ngetich since "he's from Africa - Charles can eat that." Kawecki pressured Ngetich to change his major from math to engineering on the grounds that there's no use for a math degree in Africa, the suit alleges.

Ngetich is suing the school, claiming the harassment made him depressed, causing his grades to drop and his scholarship to be revoked. Since he's here on a student visa, he could be sent back to Kenya.

I make no judgments as to the suit's merit, but if true, Central Connecticut has found the only way to make cross country running exciting.

Former Track Athlete Sues CCSU Over Alleged Racism [New Britain Herald]

Australia's Daily Telegraph reports:

World athletics is in crisis over the gender of Caster Semenya after tests revealed the South African world champion has no womb or ovaries.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is ready to disqualify Semenya from future events and advise her to have immediate surgery because her condition carries grave health risks. They have also not ruled out stripping Semenya of her 800m world championships gold medal.

Tests conducted during the world athletics championships in Berlin last month, where Semenya's gender became the subject of heated debate following her victory in the 800m, revealed evidence she is a hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female sexual characteristics.

Semenya, 18, has three times the amount of testosterone that a "normal'' female would have. According to a source closely involved with the Semenya examinations IAAF testing, which included various scans, has revealed she has internal testes - the male sexual organs which produce testosterone.

Now, as the good people at The Science of Sport point out, "hermaphrodite" is inaccurate and hopelessly retrograde. Semenya is not both fully male and fully female. She is intersex, and despite the paper's claims, her condition may very well be allowable under IAAF policy. The question is whether the degree of the condition confers on her an athletic advantage. And this has actually come up before:

While it may be suggested that being an intersex individual, or someone who is "not entirely female" is grounds for disqualification, it is not. In Atlanta in 1996, 8 women "failed" the sex verification test because they had a Y-chromosome (strictly speaking, they had the SRY gene on the Y-chromosome). All eight were allowed to compete.

In fact, the IAAF has now handled eight cases since 2005 dealing with sexuality issues. According to the group's secretary-general, four athletes "were asked to stop their career." In other words, this is a lot more common than the coverage of Semenya's case would indicate. That's not all that surprising. Great athletes tend not to come from the vast middle of human life. They're all freaks in one way or another, which helps explain phenomena like Michael Phelps and Carl Lewis' music video. But Semenya has nevertheless been portrayed as some lone oddity on the margins, like some Elephant Man of sports, with everyone obsessing like Victorian scientists over the presence of a couple internal testicles. It's funny: People seem to think her very weirdness is grounds enough for stripping her of her medal and drumming her out of track. But this is sports. Her weirdness is perfectly normal.

Semenya has 'no womb or ovaries' [The Daily Telegraph]
Semenya to learn fate in November - IAAF [Sapa-AFP]
"Caster Semenya a hermaphrodite" vs. "Results in November". The rumor mill starts spinning [The Science of Sport]

The first two revelations come to us from the U.K. Telegraph and tell us little except that we're now in the midst of a full-blown international panic over a foot race:

A source close to the investigation into the 800 metres gold medallist has confirmed that tests carried out before the start of the World Championships indicated that the runner had three times the normal female level of testosterone in her body.

Telegraph Sport can also reveal that the head coach of the South African team is Dr Ekkart Arbeit, the former East German coach who was accused by a female athlete of giving her so many anabolic steroids that she was forced to undergo a sex-change operation and live the rest of her life as a man.

The Telegraph admits that it's not clear "how closely Arbeit has been working with Semenya." The implication, I guess, is that he's shot Semenya full of the same stuff that eventually turned Heidi Krieger into Andreas Krieger, even though by most accounts Semenya's androgyny has been a lifelong issue and not something that came recently at the tip of a syringe:

According to Eric Modiba, headmaster at the Nthema secondary school where Semenya was a star pupil, she was "unique" from the start.

"When she was a young girl Caster was stripped of a medal at an athletics meet after teachers complained she was a boy, but she was reinstated on my insistence as the winner," he said. "In fact it was commonplace for ‘toilet checks' for Caster whenever she competed in inter-school championships.

"I was caught out, too. Caster was always rough and played with the boys. She liked soccer and she wore trousers to school. She never wore a dress. It was only in grade II that I realised she was a girl myself."

[...]

Unusually for a young woman perhaps, Semenya's main interest has been WWF wrestling, a sport notable for competitors with extraordinary physiques.

"Her obsession is wrestling," said Dorcus. "She has many wrestling posters, particularly WWF." Her favourite figure is John Cena, a bodybuilder who became a world wrestling champion.

So she's always been a little unusual, hormonally and otherwise. This shouldn't be a surprise. The girl won the 800 title by more than two seconds — of course she isn't normal. All great athletes have some sort of freak abnormality, something the hysterics would do well to remember here. Michael Phelps has short legs and double-jointed knees; Semenya has a lot of testosterone and five o'clock shadow. The difference is that her abnormality makes everyone say ewww.

Caster Semenya: Boy, can she run [Sunday Times]
World Athletics: Caster Semenya tests 'show high testosterone levels' [Telegraph]

That's the assertion made by Sello Rabothata, deputy sports editor at South Africa's Sowetan, in an op-ed in yesterday's Guardian. Honestly, we'd nominate this for Worst American Sports Writing, if it were American. He starts it off with a doozy:

This is just pure unadulterated jealousy and it's being done because she is black and African!

I'm not sure exclamation points in your lede make for a convincing argument, but whatever. Rabothata goes on to argue that this is a common accusation hurled at South African athletes, bringing up the case of a soccer player accused by her Ghanaian opponents of being a man. Not sure if you can make the case that that one was due to their jealously at her being "black and African."

She is best described as a tomboy. She likes, among other things, wrestling. She also has a deep voice. It seems she also sports a moustache. All these features make the allegation seem likely. But, who has a right to argue with her parents when they say their child is a girl? Shouldn't they be the ones to know?

So if I went to compete in women's track and field, I'd be allowed to as long as my parents will vouch for my womanhood? Sounds good. I'd still get smoked, but that's not the point. The point is, I agree we should wait for the testing before we attack her. Or defend her?

For us in South Africa, Semenya is our golden girl and no amount of jealousy or false allegations are going to convince us otherwise.

So because you like her and she's your nationality, you refuse to entertain questions about her? Got it.

Semenya, Our Queen Of The 800m [Guardian]

Earlier, two Australian newspapers reported that the 18-year-old Semenya — who owns the year's fastest 800 and whose "physique and powerful style have sparked speculation in recent months that she may not be entirely female," whatever that means — could be disqualified, pending the results of a series of physical checks. An IAAF spokesman later said there was no evidence of foul play and that the governing body hadn't conducted any tests, though everyone seems to think the IAAF will eventually screen her anyway. Dicks.

This sort of thing has happened before (see: Stella Walsh and her "ambiguous genitalia"). For now, it's all just a bizarre, Aussie-propagated rumor that Semenya and her handlers have been forced to parry in wincingly awkward fashion:

[Coach Michael Seme] added that when they stopped at a petrol station in Cape Town recently and Semenya entered the female toilets, the petrol attendants prevented her from doing so because they were convinced she was a man.

"Caster just laughed and asked if they would like her to take off her pants to show them she was a woman," said Seme.

The coach said he found it funny, but he doesn't have any problems with it because he is 100% certain that Semenya is a woman.

"People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her room-mates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide," Seme explained.

According to the media liaison of Athletics South Africa (ASA), Ethel Manyaka, ASA would not send an athlete to the World Championships if they were not certain about the participant's gender.

"President of ASA, Leonard Cheuene, knows something like that will create a huge controversy. How are we going to do it besides asking her to show us her private parts?" quipped Manyaka.

Alas, it's not so simple, the smart fellows at Science of Sport inform us:

[E]ven genetic testing cannot confirm male or female. In fact, it is so complex that to do proper gender testing, you have to take a multi-disciplinary approach, and make use of internal medicine specialists, gynecologists, psychologists, geneticists and endocrinologists. I am afraid that dropping your pants is not proof at all.

Which means that for the remainder of her career, Caster Semenya will have the world eyeing her crotch, and that track will enter the second decade of the 21st century behaving like some bad '80s movie.

Athlete could be disqualified over gender doubts [The Age]
Is she really a HE? [Daily Mail]
Semenya faces gender probe [Sport 24]
Caster Semenya: Male or female? [The Science of Sport]

Some say he could have run a 9.59 if he hadn't been screwing around at the end. Does that matter? Depends who you ask. "I was having fun," Bolt said. "That's just me — I like to have fun."

Some message board commenters didn't have fun watching it, though:

Bolt is a tool of epic proportions. No need to showboat like that. Just be a man and be gracious.

Most writers who witnessed it, however, had no problem with Bolt's chest-pounding, including ESPN's Jim Caple. Unless he was being sarcastic. It's hard to tell.

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping Usain Bolt would showboat a little more at the end of the 100 meters. You know, drop a Leslie Nielsen move from "Naked Gun" and moonwalk the last 10 meters, or perform a little Michael Flatley "Riverdance" routine.

Yes, Bolt gets low points for creativity. I would have liked to see him produce a "Free Tibet" banner. Or balance his checkbook.

And later, Bolt finished second in his 200m prelim heat to Rondell Sorrillo of Trinidad and/or Tobago. Of course, Bolt was probably dogging it there as well.

UPDATE: Did Bolt slow down so that he could make more money in the future? Darren Rovell ponders that.

Bolt Breaks 100-Meter Record, Wins Olympic Gold [Washington Post]

I think I speak for everyone when I thank Busted Coverage for their new feature, The 2008 Olympics of Hot College Athletes, which featured Jennifer this week and should be a fine addition to our summer. It's good to see something on another site that I can totally get behind.

I know the question you're asking now is, just how good is Mueller in the sprints? She specializes in the 200 and 400 meter dashes, where it appears that she's never finished higher than fifth in any finals. But her times aren't bad, I suppose. Oh, and this will shock you: She's majoring in public relations.

Enjoy the photos while you can, folks. Only a matter of time before her father removes them.

2008 Olympics Of Hot College Athletes [Busted Coverage]
USC Track & Field Official Site

Pity, then, poor Lawrence Michael "Poppy" Vincent, a former track coach in the San Antonio area who is now just a sad, confused, horny old man.

The report states Vincent was spotted near his car in a wooded area of McAllister Park holding a bible. He reportedly made conversation with an undercover officer before trying to rub against him
.
Vincent was arrested just before 4 p.m., after pulling down his pants and revealing a pair of floral panties. The encounter escalated when Vincent exposed himself.

Vincent had actually still been coaching part-time at the Bracken Christian School, but he was fired yesterday morning. We are curious the substance of those track uniforms.

Ex-Track Coach Charged With Indecent Exposure [My San Antonio]

In fact, we find it telling that the Jones fessing-up is making headlines not for her steroid use, but for her acknowledgment of the fact. It takes a federal indictment to an athlete to admit using performance enhancers these days — and often not even that. The news that, after years of increasingly embarrassing denials, she finally copped to it is the only "news" attached to this story. If you were idolizing Jones — or any track star — this "disappointment" is probably what you deserved, regardless. For the rest of us, we'll just go with "indifferent exhaustion."

Marion Jones Admits Anabolic Steroid Use [Steroid Nation]
For A Marion Jones fan Like Me, This Is More Sad News [Mes Deux Cents]

(UPDATE: Here's how this might affect Barry Bonds, by the way.)

But no matter how big mop jousting becomes, let us never forget its humble beginnings.

Kyle Perry, a track star at Brigham Young, was arrested last week after getting out of his car and striking a pedestrian — with a mop. Perry's vehicle apparently got too close to the man, who was pushing a bucket with mops across a street June 14, witnesses told police. "Angry words were exchanged," Provo police Capt. Cliff Argyle said. "Mr. Perry exited his vehicle and grabbed a mop out of the pedestrian's mop bucket and started to strike the pedestrian. The pedestrian grabbed another mop and used it to defend himself," he said. "Eventually the pedestrian was shoved over a planter box and fell onto his back."

Police arrived (what's the code numbers for "mop attack?") and arrested Perry. But our story isn't over.
Perry is filing a complaint against Provo police, claiming that he was unfairly tabbed as the aggressor. We eagerly await the gavel-to-gavel coverage by Court TV's Nancy Grace.

That's No Baton: BYU Track Star Arrested In Mop Fight [Yahoo Sports]
Y. Runner Filed Complaint With Provo Police [Deseret News]
BYU Track Star Mops Up Pedestrian [Lion In Oil]