Caster Semenya taking ‘discriminatory’ gender case to European Court of Human Rights
- The two-time Olympic champion’s lawyers say Swiss Federal Tribunal ‘failed’ to protect her from human rights violations
- Semenya lost appeals last year over World Athletics’ ‘humiliating’ rules to limit her high testosterone levels
Caster Semenya is going to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge “discriminatory” rules that prohibit her from competing in certain track events because of her high natural testosterone, her lawyers said Thursday.
The two-time Olympic 800m champion has already lost two legal appeals against World Athletics’ regulations that force her to medically lower her natural testosterone level if she wants to run in women’s races from 400 meters to one mile.
The South African’s lawyers said there’s been a “violation of her rights” and wants the human rights court to examine the rules.
Semenya has one of a number of conditions known as differences of sex development. Although she has never publicly released details of her condition, World Athletics has controversially referred to her as “biologically male” in previous legal proceedings, a description that angered Semenya.
Semenya has the typical male XY chromosome pattern and levels of testosterone that are much higher then the typical female range, World Athletics says. The track and field body says that gives her and other athletes like her an unfair advantage over other female runners.
