Two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge rules that require female athletes with high testosterone to lower those levels with medication.
Last update: 11/07/23 10:03 am
Caster Semenya has won her appeal at the European Court of Human Rights to challenge whether her rights had been infringed by rules that require female athletes with naturally high testosterone to lower those levels through medication.
Semenya approached the France-based court in February 2021 after losing appeals to CAS, the sport’s highest court, and another petition to the Swiss Federal Court (SFT) in a long legal battle against the regulations
The two-time Olympic champion, who won the women’s 800m titles in 2012 and 2016, has been banned from running in the 400m to one mile races since 2019 due to her intersex condition 46, XY developmental difference sexual
The regulations require women to undergo medical intervention to reduce their natural hormone levels below a certain threshold if they want to run in these races.
Semenya and other runners who fall under DSD (sexual developmental differences) rules have refused to do so and have been forced to compete in other unregulated events for the past three years.
Earlier this year, World Athletics confirmed it will exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty from female competition.
Semenya is not transgender. She was assigned female at birth, was raised as a girl, identifies as female, and has never publicly identified as intersex.
Caster Semenya is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the women’s 800m titles in 2012 and 2016.
However, he essentially conceded he had the condition by appealing the DSD rules to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2018, which he lost.
Transgender and DSD issues are distinct but often intersect because they both deal with the question of whether women with naturally high testosterone above the typical female range should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
On World Athletics’ decision to exclude male-to-female transgenders from competing in women’s competitions, president Lod Coe said: “We have also taken decisive action to protect the female category in our sport, and to do so by restricting the participation of transgender people and DSD athletes.
“The decision has been made in consultation with a range of stakeholders, including 40 member federations, our athletes, our coaches and through the athletes’ commission, as well as a range of other community groups, including trans groups, experts of the UN, the IOC and Para-athletics.
“The majority of respondents stated that transgender athletes should not compete in the women’s category.
“Many believe there is insufficient evidence that trans women do not retain advantages over biological women and want more evidence that physical advantages have been enhanced before they are willing to consider an option to include them in the female category.”
