Austrian sex-swap ski champ backs South African runner

[Shana A]

Austrian sex-swap ski champ backs South African runner

By David Rogers

http://austriantimes.at/news/Sports/2009-09-14/16336/Austrian_sex-swap_ski_champ_backs_South_African_runner

An Austrian world champion athlete later exposed as a hermaphrodite warned South African sex-row runner Caster Semenya what she would face now were harder than any race.

Tyrolean downhill ace Erika Schinegger was tipped to win three gold medals at the 1968 Olympics until doctors discovered she had been born a man. She has since changed her name to Erik and is now a happily married granddad. But in a message of support to the South African runner, who is now in hiding amid claims she has also a hermaphrodite, 61-year-old Erik told of the agony he faced.