A victory for Caster Semenya. The South African athlete, prevented from participating in certain races because she refuses treatment to lower her testosterone levels, won a legal battle on Tuesday July 11 against Switzerland, before the European Court of Human Rights , who considers the 32-year-old athlete a victim of discrimination.
Swiss justice had confirmed in 2020 a decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) validating a regulation of the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics). This forces the hyperandrogenic athlete, double Olympic champion in the 800m, to take hormone treatment to lower her testosterone levels if she wants to line up with her favorite distance in the women’s category.
This judgment of the ECHR does not however invalidate the regulations of World Athletics and does not directly open the way for Caster Semenya to participate in the 800m without salary. The athlete has a natural excess of male sex hormones. For more than ten years, she has been wrestling with the International Athletics Federation, which in April 2018 defined a maximum testosterone threshold for competing with women over certain distances.
