South African athlete Caster Semenya, prevented from taking part in certain races because she refuses treatment to lower her testosterone levels, won a legal battle against Switzerland on Tuesday 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, ex-IAAF). This forces the hyperandrogenic athlete, double Olympic champion in the 800m, to take hormone treatment to lower her testosterone levels if she wants to align with her favorite distance.
A lack of “thorough control” over the case of the South African
This judgment of the ECHR does not however invalidate the regulation of World Athletics and does not directly pave the way for Semenya to participate in the 800m without treatment. “The current regulations on DSDs (differences in sexual development), approved by the International Federation Council in March 2023, remain in place,” the body said.
“Switzerland has overstepped the reduced margin of appreciation it enjoyed in the present case, which concerned discrimination based on sex and sexual characteristics, which can only be justified by ‘very strong considerations'”, estimated the court based in Strasbourg.
“The significant stakes of the case for the applicant and the reduced margin of appreciation of the respondent State should have resulted in an in-depth institutional and procedural control, which the applicant did not benefit from in this case”, she continued.
The International Federation does not give up
In a decision rendered with a narrow majority of four judges against three, the ECHR thus considers that Switzerland has violated various articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, and that it must therefore pay the southern athlete -African 60,000 euros in damages.
Caster Semenya has a natural excess of male sex hormones. For more than ten years, it has been wrestling with the International Athletics Federation. The latter has taken note of the judgment, but that will not change her position. “Our view remains that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate way to protect fair competition in the women’s category,” she said in a statement.
Caster Semenya, failing to be able to run his favorite distance of 800m, had tried to convert to longer distances such as 5,000m, initially not affected by DSD regulations. But World Athletics further tightened its rules in March for intersex athletes like Caster Semenya, who must now keep their testosterone levels below 2.5 nanomoles per liter for twenty-four months to compete in the women’s category, regardless. the distance.