Caster Semenya wins case at European rights court
The double Olympic champion has been barred from competing until she takes testosterone-lowering drugs.
Caster Semenya. Picture: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
South Africa’s double Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya on Tuesday won her appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge whether her rights had been infringed in terms of requiring women with high testosterone to reduce those levels through drugs.
Semenya, 32, who is classed as having “differences in sexual development”, has refused to take testosterone-lowering medication as mandated by the sport’s international federation, World Athletics, if she wants to compete at her favoured distance.
FOR MORE READ HERE: Court decision opens the door for Semenya
Semenya’s legal battle
Semenya lost in an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Switzerland’s appeals court subsequently confirmed the decision of sport’s top court.
ALSO READ: Caster Semenya has not given up on her career, her wife confirms
She brought the case against Switzerland as part of her long-running legal battle.
In its ruling, the Strasbourg-based ECHR “found in particular that the applicant had not been afforded sufficient institutional and procedural safeguards in Switzerland to allow her to have her complaints examined effectively”.
LISTEN: We talk Semenya, gender rules… and the Proteas
The victory for the 32-year-old is largely symbolic as it does not call into question the ruling by World Athletics and does not pave the way for Semenya to return to competition in the 800m.
Semenya won Olympic gold at the 2012 London Games and at Rio in 2016.
ALSO READ: Widest range: Caster Semenya is the epitome of versatility
For more news your way
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.