Former England international cricketer Geoffrey Boycott is known to have remarked during a television commentary: 'My mum could have done better than that.'
The Yorkshireman was talking about the unlikely scenario of an elderly woman outshining a team of macho men on the cricket field. No one seemed to take offence but when the gender roles are reversed - at least, in the minds of the masses - a sense of injustice is felt and emotions run high.
Caster Semenya's victory in the women's 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last month stirred up a political hornet's nest after it was revealed the South African had earlier recorded testosterone levels that were as much as three times the norm for a female.
Instead of seeing a celebration of the achievement that saw her win the final by almost 2 1/2 seconds, the 18-year-old student from Pretoria was accused of cheating because, perhaps, she should have been using a different locker room.
We now await the results of a gender test as a group of doctors try to verify that the teenager described as 'my little girl' by her father Jacob Semenya, is not, in fact, 'a chip off the old block'.
It's a storyline we've seen in sports too frequently: jealous rivals spouting diatribes against successful newcomers who break traditional moulds and stereotypes.