CHENNAI, India - She should have been home with her poor brick-kiln working parents and four siblings in rural South India celebrating her moment of glory at the Asian Games.

Instead, Santhi Soundarajan has been reduced to leading a life of public humiliation amid uncaring and insensitive officials, shattered by the fact that her sporting career may be over.

India's Santhi Soundarajan lies on the track after coming in second during the women's 800m race finals at the 15th Asian Games in Doha in this December 9, 2006 file photo. Soundarajan could be stripped of her medal after failing a gender test, an Indian sports official said on December 17. [Reuters]

The Olympic Council of Asia stripped Santhi of the silver medal she won in the 800m in Qatar, saying she had been "disqualified as per the recommendations of the medical committee on a Games rule violation."

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said the 25-year-old had failed a sex test, implying she had deceived the sporting world by competing as a woman when she was actually a man.

An IOA investigation is ongoing even as Santhi, her parents and coaches insist she had done nothing wrong.

"I do not understand what is going on?," pleads Santhi. "What am I being blamed for? Will I be able to run again?"

It may also be pertinent to ask if a "gender test" is as simple as it sounds?

"No. No one can say if a person is a man or a woman just by looking at his or her genitalia," said gynaecologist Sharmila Lal.

"Some people are born with ambiguous sex organs, others have an anatomy that doesn't match up with their sex chromosomes."

Normally, women have two X chromosones (XX) and men have an X or Y chromosone (XY) in their cells. The presence of XX chromosones confirms the person's female gender.

However, some people born with a Y chromosome develop all the physical characteristics of a woman except internal female sex organs, a result of a genetic defect that does not produce testosterone.

A person with this condition - called androgen insensitivity syndrome or AIS - might be XY but she is not a man because her body never responds to the testosterone she's producing.

Since testosterone helps in building muscle and strength, an AIS case would not give an XY female athlete any kind of competitive advantage.

Seven of the eight women who tested positive for Y chromosones during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics had AIS. They were allowed to compete.

Given the confusion and uncertainity over determining a person's sex, the International Olympic Committee stopped gender testing in 1999. But the Olympic Council of Asia continues the practice.

Gender tests, however, can still be held at sporting meets if an official suspects deception or a rival protest is taken seriously by the Games organisers.

In Santhi's case, a doping control official reportedly made a complaint. There was no protest from rivals even though rumours point to a fellow Indian athlete as a possible culprit.

Santhi had never faced a gender test before Doha even though she was refused a job in the Indian Railways in 2005 for failing a routine medical test. It is, however, not known if gynaecological or hormone tests were part of the medical.

Athletes who fail gender tests can seek a review by an expert panel after two years following "surgery and hormone therapy". If cleared, athletes are eligible to compete again.

Santhi is not Stalislawa Walasiewicz, the Polish sprinter who won the women's 100 metres at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics and is widely considered the most notorious case of gender deception.

Walasiewicz moved to the United States where she was shot dead in a robbery attempt in 1980. An autopsy showed she possessed male genitalia.

The saving grace for Santhi was that the state government of Tamil Nadu stood by her despite the controversy and awarded her 1.5 million rupees (33,500 dollars) for her Asiad performance.

But will the stigma ever go away?