Triple world champion in the 800 meters (2009, 2011, 2017), Caster Semenya will not be able to line up this summer at the start of the world championships in Budapest, nor at the Olympic Games in Paris, in 2024. In question? The rules enacted in 2018 by World Athletics (WA) regarding athletes with differences in sexual development.

These stipulate that athletes with too high testosterone levels are required to take medication to compete with women. An injunction to which the South African athlete has always refused, who has since been fighting a legal battle. On Tuesday July 11, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that the 32-year-old athlete was a victim of discrimination. A decision which does not, however, directly open the way to his participation in 800 meters without treatment.

Caster Semenya had decided to sue Switzerland before the ECHR after the Swiss courts confirmed, in August 2020, a decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dating from 2019, validating the rules of the international federation on behalf of “the sports fairness”.

Pinned Switzerland

In a decision rendered with a narrow majority of four judges against three, the ECHR considered that the applicant did not benefit in Switzerland from sufficient institutional and procedural guarantees which would have enabled her to assert her complaints. Moreover, the ECHR noted that “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”. On the other hand, the decision of the European Court of Justice does not invalidate the rules of World Athletics and should therefore not settle the case for Caster Semenya.

The South African has not requested any material or moral damage, and ensures to continue her fight for the athletes who suffer from this regulation. “Sport has never been fair and never will be. If that were the case, we would all be the same without any difference, “said the interested party to L’Equipe last week.

In March, World Athletics lowered its testosterone threshold (over 24 months) allowed in competition for hyperandrogenic athletes. Established at 5 nmol/L in the previous regulation of 2018, it must now be maintained at 2.5 nmol/L. The rule also applies to all disciplines and no longer just to races between 400 meters and Miles (1,600 meters).