New legal win for embattled Semenya

Caster Semenya has had so many obstacles put in her way over the years that it seems sometimes as though hurdles should be her preferred race.

She cleared another of those legal ones yesterday when the European Court of Human Rights found that her human rights had been violated after World Athletics rules forced her to take hormone suppressants in order to compete against women.

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The court ruled that the two-time Olympic 800m champion had been discriminated against and her privacy had been violated.

The court also found that in ruling against her in a previous case, the Court for Arbitration in Sport had “left open serious questions as to the validity of the [World Athletics] DSD regulations, in particular as regards the side-effects of the hormone treatment; the potential inability of athletes to remain in compliance with the DSD regulations; and the lack of evidence of 46 XY DSD athletes having an actual significant athletic advantage in the 1 500m and 1-mile races”.

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It’s still a long way from Semenya being allowed back on the track and the issue will probably burn long after she retires, especially with the controversies around transgender athletes (especially former men) having an unfair advantage in sporting competition.

LISTEN: We talk Semenya, gender rules… and the Proteas