Faceless blogs another hurdle for Jenner

Bruce Jenner winning gold. Photo / AP

You worry about the internet sometimes. Like the petition, at last count carrying 12,000 signatures, that Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner give back the Olympic gold medal won in 1976 for the decathlon.

First, some disclaimers. I couldn't care less about the Kardashians (although it is fun explaining to other mystified people why Kim's enormous protruberances have earned a vast global following even though she doesn't appear to have any ... um, talent). I have also not cared about Jenner's transgender journey into Caitlyn, although I admit I did Google what happens to a bloke's meat and two veg if he/she opts to go the whole hog, as it were.

Don't go there. It's a horrifying surgical tale and I found myself unconsciously crossing my legs and growing further respect for transgender courage.

We in the newspaper business know only too well the power of the internet. It has re-shaped our entire industry. There's another side, though - the power it gives to the haters and those who should stay under their rocks. Those of us who write regularly under our own names often cop it from anonymous souls who safely hide while disagreeing with the issue at hand by attacking the writer.

At least Jennifer Bradford, from Texas, gave her name while posting the petition on Change.org advocating Jenner return the medal.

There may have been more than a bit of tongue in cheek as Bradford wrote: " ... this creates somewhat of a problem as Ms Jenner (as talented as she is) claims that she has always believed herself to be truly female and, therefore, was in violation of committee rules regarding women competing in men's sports and vice-versa.

"Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that we must ask whether or not it is proper that Ms Jenner should retain her Olympic records in light of this, as we must now either claim that Bruce Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner are two entirely different people (which we know is not true), or that Bruce Jenner was, in fact, a woman participating in a men's event.

"It is only fair to all involved," Ms Bradford said, "that women receive their credit as champions of the decathlon and that the men racing Ms Jenner are not expected to compete with a superior, streamlined being such as herself."

So maybe Ms Bradford was taking the mickey (or else she really is a humourless cow) - but that doesn't explain the 12,000 people who signed the petition. What sort of mean-spirited humans are they? OK, 12,000 isn't that many out of the global billions but some must live with stomach acid eating at their core. There can be only pity for those so insecure or dyspeptic that they round on someone (no matter what you think the motives might be) enduring such a massive change.

Maybe it can be explained by what many 'celebrities' in little old New Zild used to call the tall-poppy syndrome. After all, the saga of the Kardashians and Jenners is normally about as exciting and meaningful as a boiled egg.

Here's Kim this week on the burden of looking good: "Sometimes I'll wear something and I'll get inside and be like, 'Oh my God, I want to take these shoes off. That was not normal, I can't wear these, I need to just leave and take them off.'"

It makes your lip curl, but it's a decathlon-winning long jump from there to insisting on return of an Olympic medal.

You can bet there's no petition on two far more serious Olympic issues - drug allegations against another gold medallist, sprinter Alan Wells, and the recommendation from world drug authorities that an investigation be held into Alberto Salazar, himself an Olympic runner and now coach of double gold medallist from the London 2012 Olympics, Mo Farah.

Wells, a strapping athlete when he won gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, is denying accusations in a BBC documentary from Scottish and British team-mate Drew McMaster (who has confessed to taking performance-enhancing drugs) that Wells took steroids from a British doctor. Wells' legal adviser told the Daily Mail the allegations were based on "gossip and hearsay from a dead, corrupt doctor and a bitter, disgraced athlete".

Farah, the brilliant current Olympic and world champion over 5000m and 10,000m, was not implicated in another BBC Panorama programme but witnesses said Salazar gave PEDs to Farah's training partner (and London silver medallist) Galen Rupp, the World Anti-Doping Agency have called for a criminal investigation by US federal authorities and there is mounting pressure on Farah to drop Salazar as coach.

Perhaps the most alarming facet of the Panorama programme was journalist Mark Daly successfully passing the current EPO test by 'micro-dosing' - showing athletes could dope at night and be 'clean' by morning, leading WADA to query whether tests in the middle of the night might now be necessary.

But there's no internet petitions regarding medal returns from outraged fans. Those involved might have to wear a mini-skirt and call themselves Genevieve for that.