EUROPEAN COURT SIDES WITH CASTER SEMENYA

South African Olympic champion Caster Semenya won her appeal against World Athletics’ rules requiring her to lower her testosterone levels.

The ruling was made by the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old is classed as having “differences in sexual development” (DSD) and has made it clear that she has refused to take drugs in order to lower her testosterone levels.

The rule was made official in 2018 with the idea of creating a level playing field in various events ranging from the 400-metre event to one mile.

Because of the rule, Semenya had to compete in the 5,000-metre event. She failed to reach the final in last year’s world championship.

The Court “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, especially since her complaints concerned substantiated and credible claims of discrimination as a result of her increased testosterone levels caused by differences of sex development”.

Image credit: SuperSport