Thursday, September 17, 2009

M3 | SHRED2SHRED 26


Putting things in perspective

There has been a lot in press lately about a young girl called Caster Simenya and if you have never heard of her follow this link. Don't forget to come back, this is important.

We think, well mostly, anyway, that we are the centre of the universe. Now hold on there, before you go looking for a bullwhip, I am not being derogatory so let me explain.

We wake up in the morning....bumble around trying to wake kids up, feed them, get them dressed, and off to school in one piece after picking up pieces of the home work off the kitchen table after cleaning off the ketchup....or, if you are the man, stumbling around trying to shake off the effects of the six martini's thrown down your throat following the successful signing of that new contract, whilst trying to find your tie, that goes with the new Boss suit in your cupboard.

Now if that sounds remotely like you....then you ARE the centre of your universe....how could you not be....you don't have time to think about ANYTHING else.

Well....let's put things in perspective.

Castor Simenya...in case you have been living on another planet....is a phenominal 18 year old athlete. In fact she is SO phenominal that she is the WORLD 800 metre champion.

This is where the problems start....here is a young girl who grew in the middle of nowhere in the middle of darkest Africa.

What made her radically different from the other kids was 1) She could run like the wind and 2) Was she actually a SHE or was she a HE.

But that's getting ahead of things. When she became the world champion people started asking questions about how she could be so far ahead of the game at such a young age. Then that ugly phrase started being bandied about. "GENDER TESTING'.

The Australian press then released a story which illustrates graphically the absolute indignity with which this young woman was treated.....Legs in the air, splayed, photographs taken...I mean WOW.

The reults....She was an 'Hermaphrodite'...or was she? Read the link and you'll find out.

The point of this is not to highlight the desperately sad plight of this remarkable athlete, who's family..back then...probably wouldn't even know the meaning of the word but to ask everyone to WAKE UP.

The next time you stumble out of bed after turning over and going back to sleep when your ' time for gym' alarm goes off, spare a thought for what this amazing person has had to go through to get to the state of health and fitness that she OWNS currently and which made her a world champion.

Her " Triumph over adversity was becoming the world 800 mtr champion.....WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE"

Oh and by the way....what is she doing today....studying at Pretoria university and training like hell.


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