World Athletics showed no sign of changing its position, saying soon after the verdict was published that its rules would “remain in place.” The world championships, where she has won three titles, are next month.
The 32-year-old Semenya, who has been barred by the rules from running in her favorite 800-meter race since 2019 and has lost four years of her career at her peak, has only 13 months until Paris. Only then might the rules enforced by World Athletics be possibly removed. That might result in the case going back to sports court CAS in Lausanne. The 4-3 ruling in Semenya’s favor by a panel of human rights judges in the unusual position of ruling on a sports issue merely opened the way for the Swiss supreme court to reconsider its decision. It has gone from the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport to the Swiss supreme court and now the European rights court. The South African athlete’s challenge against the testosterone rules has taken five years so far. That might still take years, if it happens at all. Amid her bid to be allowed to run again without restriction and go for another gold at next year’s Olympics in Paris, today’s judgment did not immediately result in the rules being dropped. It means that sporting governance bodies around the world must finally recognize that human rights law and norms apply to the athletes they regulate.”īut the two-time Olympic champion’s success after two failed appeals in sports’ highest court and the Swiss supreme court came with a major caveat. “This important personal win for her is also a wider victory for elite athletes around the world. “Caster has never given up her fight to be allowed to compete and run free,” Semenya’s lawyers said in a statement. The ruling by the Strasbourg, France-based court questioned the “validity” of the contentious international athletics regulations in that they infringed Semenya’s human rights. Champion runner Caster Semenya won a potentially landmark legal decision for sports today when the European Court of Human Rights decided she was discriminated against by rules in track and field that force her to medically reduce her natural hormone levels to compete in major competitions.
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