A crying shame

LITTLE ROCK — THERE'S A reason the media have approval ratings just below congressmen and just above jailed congressmen. But where to put officials with the outfit known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation? Somewhere in the General Embarrassment range?

Jeese, Louise. If you haven't watched TV in a week or two, or if you haven't been online, or if you haven't answered email, or if you haven't been out your front door, or your back, then you might not have heard about the controversy surrounding a young lady from South Africa who likes to run. And run fast. The young lady's name has been besmirched enough. We're going to leave her, and her name, out of this just now. Anybody whose mama taught them manners would understand.

The Inter. Am. Ath. Fed. is requiring this young sprinter to take a genetic test. Not only that, they're holding press conferences to announce this stuff.

If you've seen the pics, then, yes, the young lady-who's all of 18 years old-is built like a runner. She has muscles. Would that we were all in shape like that. And the YouTube videos whirling around in cyberspace shows that she's fast. Faster than anybody else on the track. Last week she ran in Berlin, and there really wasn't much of a second place.

Now officials are looking into whether she's really a she, or if she is more like a he. Her hair is short and her voice is deeper than that of most young ladies', and she's leaving everybody several seconds behind her on the track. So officials say they want to put the rumors to rest. Which is okay as far as that goes. It's happened before: Men have disguised themselves as women to compete in sporting events. Just google Hermann Ratjen. Cheaters happen.

But why not test discreetly? You know, as if this 18-year-old young lady just maybe had feelings like any other 18-year-old young lady.

She's eighteen years old. Eighteen. Her family and friends said she's always been picked on, always played with the boys because of her athletic abilities, and . . . well, about all a teenage girl needs is for some high-and-mighty International Federation of Something or Other to hold press conferences announcing that you look too boyish.

The young lady didn't even attend the ceremony to receive her medal. (Do you blame her?) Instead, an official with the IAAF showed up to talk to reporters. He must have thought he was being helpful when he told the press that they were testing the young runner not because she was cheating, but because of, ahem, "ambiguity." Oh, please, Mr. Official, don't be helpful. Please just go away. Don't make this any more embarrassing than is already it is. Or do you even have enough sense to understand what an official boor you're making of yourself?

Another spokesman for the organization went into even more detail, saying how the IAAF needed to be careful and cautious. And he helpfully added how much the runner looked like a man. So much for being careful and cautious.

This whole thing could have been handled so much better by everybody. The IAAF could have ordered the testing-the results should be available in a few weeks-without holding press conferences that had to embarrass Our Heroine and her whole family, who have also been quoted in the reports.

Start the list of those who could have handled this so much better with yours truly The Media. Should she be found cheating, then call news conferences to expose the fraud, then call mom and pop in South Africa to get their comments, then talk of rumors, suspicions and, oh, ambiguity.

But the only thing the IAAF has accomplished so far is embarrassing a young lady. And the rest of us who were taught better by our mamas.