Caster Semenya wins human rights case against testosterone rules

Champion runner Caster Semenya won a potentially groundbreaking legal decision for sport on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled she was discriminated against by rules in athletics that force her to medically lower her natural hormone levels in order to compete in major competitions.

The court ruling in Strasbourg, France, called into question the “validity” of the controversial international athletics regulations on the grounds that they violated Semenya’s human rights.

“Caster has never given up on her fight to get involved and walk free,” Semenya’s lawyers said in a statement. “This significant personal victory for her is also a broader victory for elite athletes around the world. It means sport governing bodies around the world must finally recognize that human rights law and standards apply to the athletes they regulate.”

But the two-time Olympic champion’s success after two failed appeals to the Supreme Court of Sport and the Swiss Supreme Court brought a big caveat. Amid her bid to regain unlimited running and go for another gold at the Paris Olympics next year, Tuesday’s verdict didn’t immediately lead to the rules being scrapped.

That could take years, if at all.

The South African athlete’s fight against testosterone rules has lasted five years so far.

It has moved from the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport to the Swiss Supreme Court and now the European Court. The 4-3 ruling in Semenya’s favor by a panel of human rights judges in the unusual position of deciding on a sporting issue only opened the way for the Swiss Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

That could lead to the case going back to sports court CAS in Lausanne. Only then can the rules imposed by World Athletics possibly be scrapped.

Semenya, 32, who has been banned by rules since 2019 from competing in her favorite 800-merer race and has lost four years of her career at its peak, has just 13 months left until Paris. Next month is the world championships, where she has won three titles.

World Athletics showed no signs of changing its position and said shortly after the verdict was published that the rules would “remain in force”.

“We remain of the opinion that the … regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the women’s category, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Federal Tribunal have both determined,” said World Athletics.

World Athletics also said it would “encourage” Switzerland’s government to appeal. Switzerland was the defendant in the case as Semenya challenged her last legal loss in 2020 at the Swiss Supreme Court. The Swiss government has three months to appeal.

The Swiss government was also ordered to pay Semenya 60,000 euros ($66,000) for costs and expenses.

The ruling could have implications for other high-profile Olympic sports such as swimming, which also have rules that exclude female athletes with high natural testosterone. Football, the world’s most popular sport, is revising women’s eligibility rules and could put limits on testosterone.

While Semenya has been at the center of the highly emotional issue of gender appropriateness in sports for nearly 15 years and is the figurehead of the issue, she’s not the only runner affected. At least three other Olympic medalists have also been affected by the rules that set limits on the level of natural testosterone female athletes are allowed to have. World Athletics says there are “a number” of other top athletes covered by the regulations.

There are no testosterone limits for male athletes.

Semenya’s case is not the same as the debate over transgender women who have transitioned from male to female are allowed to play sports, although the two issues intersect.

Semenya was identified as female at birth, grew up as a girl, and has been legally identified as female throughout her life. She has one of a number of conditions known as sex development differences, or DSDs, which naturally cause high testosterone that is in the typical male range.

Semenya says her elevated testosterone should simply be viewed as a genetic gift, and critics of the rules have likened it to a basketball player’s height or a swimmer’s long arms.

While authorities can’t dispute Semenya’s legal gender, they say she has, among other things, the typical male XY chromosome pattern and physical features that make her “biologically male,” a claim that has infuriated Semenya. World Athletics says Semenya’s testosterone levels give her an athletic advantage similar to that of a man competing in women’s events and rules should be in place to address that.

Track has had rules since 2019 that require athletes like Semenya to artificially lower their testosterone below a certain level, which is measured by the amount of testosterone registered in their blood. They can do that by taking birth control pills daily, getting hormone-blocking injections, or having surgery. In fact, if athletes choose one of the first two options, they would have to do so throughout their careers to remain eligible to compete regularly.

Semenya has been fighting the rules and has refused to follow them since 2019, saying they discriminate against her because of her condition.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights agreed. It also ruled for Semenya on another point of her appeal, that she was not given “an effective remedy” against that discrimination when the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Supreme Court rejected her appeal.

There were “serious questions about the validity” of the testosterone rules, the court said, including any side effects of the hormone treatment athletes would have to undergo, the difficulties they face in staying within the rules by trying to control their natural hormone levels. to hold. , and the “lack of evidence” that their high natural testosterone did give them an advantage after all.

That last point got to the heart of the regulations, which World Athletics has always said is about dealing with the unfair sporting advantage it believes Semenya has over other women.

The South African Job Federation said it was “delighted” with Tuesday’s verdict.

Since Semenya took her case to the European Court, the rules have tightened and athletes have to lower their testosterone levels even further. The updated rules also apply to every event and not just Semenya’s favorite race range between 400 meters and a mile, which they did before.

Semenya won gold in the 800 meters at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, but was prevented from defending her title at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to regulations.

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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.