South African athlete Caster Semenya won her legal battle against Switzerland on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that she had been the victim of discrimination.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that South African Olympic running champion Caster Semenya was discriminated against when World Athletics created rules that forced her to lower her naturally high testosterone levels to compete.
The court ruled 4-3 in favor of Semenya, finding that previous courts deprived Semenya of fighting her ruling in other courts.
“The court found that the applicant had not been afforded sufficient institutional and procedural safeguards in Switzerland to allow her to have her complaints examined effectively and that the domestic remedies available to the applicant could not be considered effective in the circumstances of the present case,” the human rights court ruled Tuesday.
It said past cases “had left open serious questions” over the validity of the testosterone regulations, the effects of “side-effects from the hormone treatment; the potential inability of athletes to remain in compliance … and the lack of evidence of 46 XY DSD athletes having an actual significant athletic advantage in the 1,500- and 1-mile races.”
