RIO DE JANEIRO — The Olympic Games is running into a storm of controversy involving Caster Semenya, the favorite in the women’s 800 meters. The South African, the unwilling face of track’s ethical and medical dilemma over women with high levels of testosterone, sharply divides opinion, even among fellow competitors.

After qualifying comfortably Wednesday for the 800 semifinals, Semenya strode past reporters without talking. Her competitors had plenty to say. Some embraced the 25-year-old as just another competitor, while others said they’d rather see women in her situation in separate races.

Suspicions among fellow competitors that Semenya isn’t the only 800-meter runner in Rio de Janeiro believed to be hyperandrogenic – a condition that can cause women to produce unusually elevated levels of testosterone – are adding extra urgency to the debate, especially with Olympic medals on the line.

THE IOC HEIRARCHY is used to being treated like royalty in Olympic host cities. Brazilian police afforded Patrick Hickey no such deference early Wednesday, bringing a TV crew to film the IOC executive being arrested in a Rio de Janeiro hotel room while naked.

The powerful head of Europe’s Olympic bodies is now a criminal suspect, accused of being part of a plot to rake in $3 million by illegally selling Rio Olympic tickets above face value. Until Wednesday morning, Hickey was the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland and collecting his $900-a-day games per diem as an IOC executive board member. The Irish body announced that Hickey would be relinquishing all Olympic roles while being investigated for scalping.

NBC REACHED 24.1 million viewers Tuesday for a telecast that had Simon Biles and Aly Raisman taking the top two medals for gymnastics floor exercise.

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Consistent with every other night, that lags behind the London Games of 2012, which had 30.1 million viewers for the corresponding night.

THE INTERNATIONAL Boxing Association removed an undisclosed number of referees and judges after determining they had not met the organization’s standards of competence.

SUE BIRD and the U.S. women’s basketball team received some good news when an MRI revealed that the team captain and point guard just had a knee capsule sprain.

Bird had initially feared the injury would be much worse.

Bird wasn’t at practice on Wednesday and is listed as day-to-day.


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