PRELIMINARY medical tests on the South African athlete at the centre of a gender row reportedly showed triple the normal female level of testosterone in her body.
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Caster Semenya, the 18-year-old who won gold in the 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, was tested in South Africa before heading to Germany, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.
The results, leaked just hours before her medal-winning run, indicated Semenya had three times the normal female testosterone levels.
High hormone levels do not always translate to a failed drugs test. Testosterone levels can vary widely.
The results contributed to the International Association of Athletics Federations' request for detailed "gender verification" tests on the star teenager.
The Telegraph also revealed the South African athletics team's head coach was Dr Ekkart Arbeit, a former East German coach accused by a female athlete of giving her so many anabolic steroids she was forced to have a sex-change operation.
Dr Arbeit was also briefly hired as Australia’s head coach in 1997 before the doping allegations were revealed.
It was not clear how closely Dr Arbeit worked with Semenya, the Telegraph reported.
The 18-year-old smashed her personal best by more than seven seconds in July and then went on to better that by more than a second in Berlin.
The preliminary test results became public because a fax was sent to the wrong person, the BBC reported.
IAAF representatives asked the South African team to withdraw Semenya from competition in the wake of the findings.
Semenya's family and most of her country leapt to her defence amid the storm. Crowds turned out to welcome home the teenager in Johannesburg after the world championships.
Her uncle told the BBC Semenya was "like my child, I know where she comes from ... for myself, I know Caster is a girl".
President of the South African athletics body resigned his seat on the IAAF board in protest against the association's treatment of Semenya.
"It will not be fair for me to attack the IAAF as a council member and representative of South Africa. It is a conflict of interest," Leonard Chuene told the BBC's Newshour programme.
Mr Cheune defended the athlete. "We have not once ... doubted her," he said. "It's very simple - she's a girl.
"We took this child to Poland to the junior championship under the IAAF. Why was there no story about it? She was accepted there.
"No one said anything there because she did not do anything special. She is the same girl."
