History repeats itself in Berlin.
1936: At the Summer Olympics in Berlin, women’s 100-meter runner Helen Stephens is accused of being a man.
2009: At the World Championships in Berlin, women’s 800-meter runner Caster Semenya is accused of being a man.
Stephens was checked and cleared; Semenya is being tested. But the weird kicker from 1936: Stephens’ Olympic rival Stella Walsh was later discovered to have male genitals and both male and female chromosomes — a condition known as mosaicism. Thus the nickname “Stella the Fella.”
Oh, what little difference 73 years makes. Jolly old gender-bending Berlin!
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