2023-07-11 17:22:08
In the long and hard battle that Caster Semenya maintains against the International Athletics Federation (formerly IAAF and currently World Athletics), the South African has scored a first victory, not only individual, but also universal, in favor of all intersex athletes . The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has considered that Semenya was a victim of “discrimination based on sex and sexual characteristics” by the IAAF, by requiring her to reduce her testosterone levels in order to participate in international competitions in female category.
The ‘Semenya case’, however, “given the strong dissenting opinions (four votes against three in the ECHR that made its sentence public on Tuesday)”, according to the highest athletics body chaired by Sebastian Coe, will not, however, be closed Until at least three months from now. The IAAF demanded on Tuesday that Switzerland, where the headquarters of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is located, request its referral to the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg Court, “for a final and definitive decision.” Meanwhile, World Athletics assures that it will keep its regulations in force, since it considers that “they are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means to protect fair competition in the women’s category.”
Last March, World Athletics tightened its rules on the participation of women with different sexual development (DSD), as is the case of Semenya, whose body produces more levels of testosterone than what biology considers normal. The TAS and the Swiss Federal Court agreed with the IAAF and dismissed Semenya’s appeal, but Strasbourg has given Semenya an important moral boost, who has spent five years fighting to try to compete with women without undergoing hormonal treatments.
The ruling of the Strasbourg Court that could definitively open other athletes with hyperandrogenia arrives, however, perhaps too late for Semenya herself, who is already 32 years old and who in 2019 was prohibited from participating in 400, 800 and 1,500 meters until she Don’t lower your testosterone. It was in 2021 when the South African appealed to the ECHR, which has also determined that in Switzerland the middle-distance runner “did not enjoy sufficient institutional and procedural guarantees that would allow her to give effective effect to her claims.”
The Human Rights Court recalls that the CAS itself admitted having doubts about the regulation prepared by the IAAF that obliges intersex athletes to lower their testosterone levels, given the “significant” side effects that this entails. “I will never take medication. I think my legal team will get me back on track,” insists Semenya, whose legal fight is not only her own and has emerged as a global intersex symbol.
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